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THE 
ADOLESCENT  PERIOD 

STAR  R 


2?**      5 


BY  THE  SAME  AUTHOR 


THE 
HYGIENE  OF  THE  NURSERY 

INCLUDING   THE  GENERAL    REGIMEN  AND   FEEDING    OF 
INFANTS   AND   CHILDREN   AND  THE  DOMESTIC  MAN- 
AGEMENT  OF   THE  ORDINARY  EMERGENCIES  OF 
EARLY  LIFE,   MASSAGE,   ETC. 

Eighth  Edition.  Enlarged  and  Improved 
WITH  TWENTY-SIX  ILLUSTRATIONS 
12mo.     xiii+331  Pages.     Cloth,  SI. 00 


Designed  for  the  use  of  Parents,  Nurses,  and 
all  interested  in  the  Care  and  Management  of 
Children 


P.  Blakiston's  Son  &  Co.,  Philadelphia 


THE  ADOLESCENT 
PERIOD 

ITS  FEATURES  AND  MANAGEMENT 


BY 

LOUIS  STARR,  M.  D.,  LL.  D. 

FELLOW  OF  THE  COLLEGE  OF  PHYSICIANS    OF    PHILADEL- 
PHIA; FELLOW  OF  THE  ROYAL  SOCIETY  OF 
MEDICINE,  LONDON,  ETC. 


PHILADELPHIA 

P.   BLAKISTON'S   SON   &   CO 

1012  WALNUT  STREET 

3"7  3  ^7 


Copyright,  1915,  by  P.  Blakiston's  Son  &  Co. 


THK  MAPLK  PRESS  YORK  ?A 


Ha 
- 

PREFACE 

In  response  to  many  requests  from  readers  of 
the  " Hygiene  of  the  Nursery"  it  is  my  purpose 
in  this  little  book  to  present  an  outline  of  the 
physical  and  psychical  changes  that  are  to  be 
expected  in  the  period  of  life  between  the  end 
of  childhood  and  adult  age.  Also  to  point  out 
some  of  the  methods  of  management  that 
should  be  adopted  to  combat  the  dangers  of 
these  trying  years  and  reasonably  insure  the 
evolution  of  adolescence  into  healthy  and  useful 
maturity. 

My  book  makes  no  pretence  at  being  an 
exhaustive  treatise.  Its  intentional  avoidance 
of  technicalities  and  its  brevity  may,  I  hope, 
make  it  acceptable  to  the  ordinary  reader  and 
lead  to  greater  interest  in,  and  closer  attention 
to,  matters  that  are  of  vital  importance  to  the 
future  well-being  of  our  boys  and  girls. 

LOUIS  STARR. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  I 

Page 

Growth,  and  the  Development  of  Muscle  Power   .   .       1 

CHAPTER  II 
Physical  Education 32 

CHAPTER  III 
The  Diseases  of  Adolescence 67 

CHAPTER  IV 
The  Faults  and  Criminal  Tendencies  of  Adolescents  113 

CHAPTER  V 
Menstruation      140 

CHAPTER  VI 

Sexual  Enlightenment 150 

Index 193 


ISO  &Vfc-fc 


THE  ADOLESCENT  PERIOD 

CHAPTER  I 

GROWTH,  AND  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  MUSCLE 
POWER 

General  growth,  or  increase  in  height  and 
weight — after  the  first  two  and  one-half  years, 
when  it  is  more  rapid  than  in  any  other 
period  of  life — is  quite  regular  and  constant 
up  to  the  eighth  year.  After  this,  though 
continuous,  it  is  slower  until  the  age  of  eleven 
or  twelve  in  girls  and  thirteen  or  fourteen  in 
boys,  when,  as  puberty  is  established,  there 
is  a  decided  acceleration,  most  noticeable 
during  the  fourteenth  year  in  the  former, 
when  height  and  weight  may  exceed  boys,  and 
the  fifteenth  in  the  latter  and  continuing  to 
the  seventeenth  or  eighteenth  year  respectively. 
After  this  time  there  is  a  marked  lessening  in 
the  rate  of  growth,  as  if  the  developmental 
energies  were  spent  and  in  need  of  recupera- 
tion.   In  consequence,  many  girls  almost  stop 


2  THE  ADOLESCENT   PERIOD 

growing  at  seventeen,  but  with  boys,  under 
favoring  conditions — good  food,  proper  hygiene 
and  judicious  physical  culture — there  is  a  final 
period  of  increase  at  nineteen  or  twenty,  which 
gradually  and  irregularly  terminates  in  full 
height  several  years  later,  while  weight  aug- 
ments until  thirty  or  longer. 

In  growth,  then,  there  are  periods  of  accelera- 
tion alternating  with  intervals  of  comparative 
rest,  and  in  these  latter  it  is  probable  that 
qualitative  improvements  of  structure  are 
taking  place  through  the  same  life  force  that 
produces  gross  increase  in  size. 

In  both  sexes  gain  in  height  antedates  gain 
in  weight.  Weight  often  increases  long  after 
full  height  has  been  attained,  and  during  the 
years  when  both  are  augmenting  their  incre- 
ments are  not  synchronous,  the  greatest  of 
one  frequently  coinciding  with  the  least  of  the 
other. 

Gain  in  height  alone  is  but  one  evidence  of 
normal  growth,  and  this  must  be  associated 
with  a  proportionate  increase  in  weight  to 
show  perfectly  healthy  vigor.  Great  tallness 
without  corresponding  weight  and  symmetrical 
development  is  abnormal  and  is  usually  at- 


GROWTH  3 

tended  by  a  lack  of  reserve  force  or  ability  to 
resist  strain  or  disease.  The  same  is  true,  in  a 
less  degree,  where  weight  markedly  exceeds 
height.  Between  both  of  these  features  of 
growth  there  is  an  approximate  standard  of 
proportion  for  different  years,  and  the  nearer 
the  individual  approaches  the  average  height 
and  weight  of  his  special  age  the  closer  will 
be  his  conformation  to  a  model  of  complete 
symmetry  and  health. 

A  fairly  accurate  standard  proportion  of 
height  and  weight  in  the  two  sexes  from  the 
age  of  eight  to  eighteen  years  is  shown  in  the 
following  table: 


Age 
in  years 

Males 

Females 

Height  in 

Weight 

Height  in 

Weight 

feet  and  inches 

in  lbs. 

feet  and  inches 

in  lbs. 

8 

3-io 

49-5 

3-9H 

47-7 

IO 

4.2 

59  -6 

4 

iH 

57 

4 

ii 

43% 

65-4 

4 

iY2 

62 

9 

12 

4  sH 

70.7 

4 

5% 

69 

5 

13 

4-7H 

76.9 

4 

8 

78 

7 

14 

49H 

84.8 

4 

10M 

88 

7 

IS 

5 

95-2 

5 

H 

98 

3 

16 

s-zK 

107.4 

5 

iH 

106 

7 

18 

5.6H 

123 

5 

*K 

"5 

4 

4  THE   ADOLESCENT  PERIOD 

Height  and  weight  may  be  increased  by  good 
food,  comfortable  and  hygienic  surroundings 
and  judicious  exercise.  School-work,  prop- 
erly conducted,  has  little  influence  upon  growth 
in  strong  children,  but,  with  the  weak,  appears 
to  be  helpful  by  leading  to  a  more  natural 
and  regular  rate  of  gain,  and  by  giving  an 
interval  of  rest  through  its  tendency  to  retard 
the  establishment  of  puberty,  a  rest  which 
is  later  followed  by  more  rapid  growth.  Hard 
mental  and  physical  work,  insufficient  food, 
malnutrition  and  disease  retard  growth,  but 
if  the  hampering  condition  be  removed  there 
is  more  or  less  rapid  compensation,  and  an 
ultimate  attainment  of  equality  with  those 
who  have  always  lived  in  a  favoring  environ- 
ment. Still,  weight  gained  at  the  proper  age 
is  better  retained  than  if  made  up  late,  and 
general  growth  is  more  normal  when  it  takes 
place  during  the  periods  when  the  tissue- 
building  force  is  naturally  most  active.  In 
late  adolescence,  contrasted  with  earlier  life, 
there  is  more  variation  in  growth,  much 
greater  liability  to  retrogression  and  increased 
susceptibility  to  outside  influences; unfavorable 
surroundings    and    conditions    more    readily 


GROWTH  5 

causing  arrest  of  growth  and  preventing  perfect 
maturity. 

As  adult  age  is  reached,  growth  force  seems 
to  expend  itself  in  a  final  effort  to  produce  full 
stature  and  the  individual  is  left  physically 
slack  and  morally  dependent  upon  his  elders 
to  whose  influence  also  there  is  now  a  much 
greater  susceptibility  than  in  earlier  years. 
Consequently  those  nearly  approaching  man- 
hood or  womanhood  should  be  well  looked 
after  and  receive  physical  care  and  parental 
guidance  and  protection. 

The  growth  of  the  various  parts  and  organs 
of  the  body  is  not  uniform.  The  muscles,  for 
instance,  grow  more  than  the  lungs  or  stomach, 
and  many  rudimentary  structures  atrophy  or 
disappear  as  age  advances,  so  that  at  birth 
and  at  maturity  the  component  parts  of  the 
body  are  very  different  in  relative  size.  Most 
organs  and  parts  of  the  organism  grow  inter- 
mittently; they  are,  too,  subject  to  variations 
in  order  and  degree  of  development  in  different 
individuals  notwithstanding  a  similarity  in 
height  and  weight,  and  they  reach  their 
greatest  size  at  different  ages;  for  example,  the 
brain  almost  ceases  to  grow  at  puberty,  when 


6  THE  ADOLESCENT  PERIOD 

the  reproductive  organs,  the  pelvis  and  the 
muscles  generally  are  in  their  nascent  stage — 
that  is,  growing  at  the  most  rapid  rate.  Other 
organs — such  as  the  lungs — continue  to  grow 
into  advanced  age,  when  the  muscles  and 
bones,  having  reached  their  maximum,  are 
steadily  decreasing  in  bulk  causing  the  loss  of 
weight  and  feebleness  of  senescence.  There- 
fore the  age  of  the  body  is  relative,  some 
organs  continuing  to  grow  or  keeping  young 
while  others  stop  growing  or  become  old, 
and  the  individual  is  senile,  not  because  all 
parts  of  his  body  are  old,  but  because  the 
bones  and  muscles,  which  are  the  heaviest 
organs  and  those  giving  growth  its  chief 
characteristics,  are  retrograding.  ...    J 

The  manner  of  growth  of  the  different  organs 
of  the  body  is  of  much  scientific  interest,  but 
attention  need  be  given  now  only  to  the 
development  of  the  muscles  and  their  functions. 

The  importance  of  the  muscles  is  readily 
understood  when  it  is  considered  that  they 
constitute  in  weight  nearly  one-half  of  the 
human  body,  that  they  are  intimately  con- 
cerned in  circulation,  respiration  and  digestion, 
and  above  all  that  they  are  organs  of  the 


GROWTH  7 

will  through  which  all  its  manifestations  are 
accomplished.  Besides  performing  ordinary- 
motor  tasks  the  muscles  are  instruments  of 
expression,  every  change  of  mental  condition 
unconsciously  altering  their  state  of  tension, 
though  there  may  be  no  actual  movement, 
and  they  are  thus  organs  of  thought  as  well  as 
of  volition.  In  the  brain,  too,  the  motor  and 
purely  mental  centres  are  so  closely  associated 
that  proper  development  of  the  muscles  tends 
to  improve  intellection,  and  for  this  reason  at- 
tention to  muscle  training  is  very  necessary  in 
the  young  and  should  be  a  part  of  the  scheme 
of  all  educational  systems. 

As  children  advance  in  age  their  muscles 
increase  markedly  in  length  and  thickness  and 
become  more  firmly  attached  to  the  bones. 
In  girls,  with  the  exception  of  the  uterine  walls, 
the  muscular  growth  is  less  than  in  boys,  but 
decided  differentiation  in  the  sexes  in  this 
respect  does  not  begin  until  the  age  of  thirteen. 
Muscle  growth  may  be  unsymmetrical,  causing 
unusual  postures  of  the  body  or  limbs  and 
changing  facial  expression;  or  the  bones  may 
be  twisted  out  of  shape  by  arrest  of  some  and 
over-development  of  other  muscles,  and  a  dis- 


8  THE  ADOLESCENT   PERIOD 

proportion  in  bone  and  muscle  growth  is  at  the 
root  of  the  clumsiness  so  often  exhibited  by 
adolescent  boys.  With  the  establishment  of 
puberty,  since  there  seems  to  be  an  intimate 
sympathy  between  sexual  and  motive  energy, 
special  growth  features  are  seen.  There  is 
first  decided  increase  of  leg  power;  next,  of  the 
biceps  and  back,  and,  later,  of  the  forearm 
with  its  repulsive  force.  This  gain  is  espe- 
cially to  be  noticed  and  most  rapid  in  boys. 

Power  gain,  like  general  growth,  is  incon- 
stant, being  subject  to  periods  of  greater 
or  less  rapidity  of  increase;  this  is  especially 
true  of  the  legs,  and  as  their  power  is  very 
closely  connected  with  sex  and  as  sedentary 
habits  tend  to  arrest  development  in  this 
direction  it  is  essential  to  encourage  the  taking 
of  sufficient  exercise  to  profit  by  the  nascent 
intervals.  \The  most  rapid  development  of 
muscle  power  occurs  between  the  ages  of 
fifteen  and  nineteen  years.  After  this  the 
increase  is  slower  but  continues,  especially  in 
males,  for  six  or  seven  years.  The  age  when 
the  greatest  possible  power  can  be  attained  is 
between    twenty-five    and    thirty-five    years. 


GROWTH 


Later  there  comes  a  slow  decrease,  though 
this  is  not  marked  until  the  fiftieth  year  is 
reached. 

In  addition  to  the  gross  features  outlined 
above  the  child  as  it  becomes  older  exhibits 
new  expressions  of  motor  force.  These  can 
be  better  understood  by  dividing  the  voluntary 
muscles  into  two  functional  classes,  namely, 
the  fundamental  and  the  accessory. 

The  fundamental  muscles  are  large  and 
powerful,  t  those  of  the  limbs,  shoulders  and 
trunk  for  example.  Their  movements  are  sim- 
ple, almost  instinctive  and  take  place  synchron- 
ously, as  in  straining  to  lift  a  burden,  or  in 
alternating  rhythm,  as  of  the  two  legs  in  the 
act  of  walking.  This  group  is  best  developed 
in  the  class  of  toilers  doing  the  rough,  heavy 
work  of  the  world,  and  having  little  intelligence 
and  less  mental  training. 

The  accessory  muscles  are  smaller  and  much 
more  numerous  than  the  fundamental.  They 
are  concerned  in  more  delicate  movements, 
like  those  of  the  fingers,  and  are  capable  of 
combining  for  the  production  of  very  complex 
acts  such  as  those  involved  in  writing  or 
articulate  speech.  Functionally  they  reach 
perfection  later  in  life  and  proportionately  to 


10  THE   ADOLESCENT   PERIOD 

education.  Their  activity  directly  reflects 
mental  states,  the  influence  of  the  latter  being 
shown  either  by  movements  or  by  alterations 
in  fibre  tension  which  change  the  expression  of 
the  face,  the  modulation  of  the  voice  or  the 
character  of  the  hand-writing.  In  a  word,  the 
accessory  muscles  are  practically  organs  of  the 
mind. 

Incomplete  development  of  either  of  these 
two  groups  of  muscles  is  quite  possible.  Hard, 
coarse  toil  or  undue  athletic  training  tend 
to  hypertrophy  of  the  fundamental  muscles 
and,  with  coincident  neglect  of  the  acces- 
sory muscles,  produces  a  being  capable  of 
feats  of  great  strength  but  one  incapable 
of  fine,  accurate  work  either  mechanical  or 
mental.  On  the  other  hand,  and  here  there 
is  greater  danger  of  permanent  ill-effects, 
too  much  school  work  associated  with  a  seden- 
tary life  or  a  too  early  employment  in  trades 
requiring  long  hours  of  close  attention  and 
extreme  manual  accuracy  over- strain  or  even 
arrest  the  development  of  the  accessory  muscles, 
with  consequent  nervous  or  muscular  irrita- 
bility and  predisposition  to  choreic  disorders. 
As  both  of  these  conditions  are  abnormal  the 


GROWTH  II 

end  to  strive  for  is  full  development  and 
adjustment  of  each  group,  and  the  best  time 
to  accomplish  this  is  during  the  years  when 
the  increase  of  motor  power  is  naturally  most 
rapid,  and  when  there  seems  to  be  the  greatest 
response  to  appropriate  regimen  and  exercise, 
measures  which  also  promote  mentality  and 
general  health.  The  small  muscles  are  most 
readily  over-strained  from  the  fourth  to  the 
eighth  year;  after  this  to  the  age  of  twelve 
there  is  less  danger,  but  more  again  as  puberty 
is  established,  particularly  if  fundamental  ac- 
tivities be  neglected.  This  being  the  period  of 
very  rapid  power  growth  in  the  large  muscles 
of  the  legs,  back  and  arms  and  in  those  in- 
volved in  circulation  and  respiration,  there  is 
less  fatigue-resisting  force  left  for  the  accessory 
muscles.  Therefore,  at  this  time,  there 
should  be  less  confinement  and  study  or 
delicate  hand-work  and  more  outdoor  life 
and  play,  with  its  relaxation  and  exercise. 
When  it  is  desired  to  train  the  accessory 
muscles  for  complex  and  delicate  acts,  as 
playing  some  musical  instrument,  or  any 
intricate  hand  work,  the  task  should  be  begun 
at  the  age  of  eight  or  nine,  taking  advantage 


12  THE   ADOLESCENT  PERIOD 

of  the  interval  when  the  functions  of  these 
muscles  are  not  dominated  by  the  great 
strength  increment  taking  place  in  the  funda- 
mental muscles  at  puberty. 

In  children  almost  every  impression  received 
from  without  causes  some  response  in  the 
muscles.  This  may  be  either  a  mere  change  in 
fibrillar  tension  or  an  actual  movement,  which 
is  often  automatic.  These  latter,  termed 
automatisms,  are  extremely  numerous  in  early 
life  and  are  illustrated  by  such  acts  as  grimac- 
ing, twisting  a  button  or  lock  of  hair,  tapping 
with  the  fingers  or  feet,  sucking  the  tongue, 
etc.  They  may  be  exhibited  by  any  muscle  of 
the  body,  but  those  of  the  accessory  group  are 
mainly  concerned  in  them,  and  whereas  the 
fundamental  automatisms  soon  disappear  as 
age  advances,  the  accessory  ones  are  apt  to 
increase  until  adult  years  or  even  remain 
permanently  in  peculiarities  of  facial  expres- 
sion, in  certain  habits  of  attitude  or  pronuncia- 
tion, or  such  abnormalities  as  stammering  or 
local  muscular  twitching. 

Automatisms  are  increased  by  continued 
physical  inactivity  and  mental  effort,  as  long 
sitting  at  a  desk  in  hard  study,  or  at  a  bench 


GROWTH  13 

in  some  labor  requiring  concentrated  attention 
and  delicate  finger  work.  Their  character 
varies  with  the  task,  though  they  are  not 
necessarily  shown  by  the  muscles  used  in  it, 
and  they  indicate  its  difficulty  and  tendency  to 
induce  fatigue.  When  pushed  too  far  they 
may  advance  to  true  chorea;  may  become 
excessive  as  in  head-beaters,  shakers,  etc., 
or  may  pass  into  fixed  attitudes  and  postures 
of  body  or  limb  indicating  morbid  cerebral 
conditions. 

Ordinary  automatisms  must  not  be  regarded 
as  abnormal  nor  should  efforts  be  made  to 
suppress  them,  for,  short  of  exaggeration,  the 
more  and  stronger  they  are  the  better,  and  a 
good  deal  of  restlessness  is  desirable  in  child- 
hood. Many  of  those  movements  usually 
attributed  to  nervousness,  such  as  fidgets  in 
school  and  the  awkward  actions  of  the  em- 
barrassed or  of  those  making  efforts  or  greatly 
excited,  indicate  an  abundance  of  untrained 
power  of  intellect,  feeling  and  will.  In  the 
beginning  of  life,  too,  each  part  of  the  body 
should  act  freely  and  independently,  and  many 
automatic  movements  may  be  essential  for 
proper  growth  in  size  and  for  development 


14  THE  ADOLESCENT  PERIOD 

of  the  brain  centres.  To  this  end  it  is  neces- 
sary, in  some  cases,  to  produce  these  move- 
ments artificially  by  reflex  stimulation,  just  as 
exceptional  children  must  be  purposely  famil- 
iarized with  the  sensations  of  hunger,  thirst, 
cold,  heat,  etc.,  and  even  be  taught  to  cry  and 
laugh.  While,  then,  the  automatisms  should 
not  be  suppressed  they  must,  after  they  ap- 
pear, be  controlled  and  moulded  into  smoothly 
co-ordinated  acts.  This  is  a  difficult  process  at 
first.  Even  in  so  simple  an  act  as  sitting  still, 
a  young  child  often  closes  his  jaws  tight,  shuts 
his  fists,  holds  his  breath  and  sets  all  his 
muscles  tense,  with  an  effort  great  enough  to 
quickly  cause  fatigue;  but  control  becomes 
easier  and  more  and  more  complete  as  age 
advances  and  intelligence  and  will  power 
increase. 

The  efficiency  of  the  muscles  depends  upon 
their  strength,  their  rapidity  of  response  to 
will-commands,  their  diversity  of  motion,  and 
the  completeness  with  which  these  factors 
can  be  voluntarily  co-ordinated.  Modern  con- 
ditions are  not  favorable  to  the  best  develop- 
ment of  these  desirable  qualities.  In  the 
agricultural  and  manufacturing  industries  too 


GROWTH  15 

much  is  done  by  labor-saving  machinery,  and 
with  more  complicated  processes,  the  worker 
takes  the  product — a  book  or  a  watch,  for 
instance — through  only  a  single  step  of  its 
manufacture  and  has  no  interest  or  pride  in 
it  as  a  finished  piece  of  work.  Even  with 
adolescent  sports  there  is  a  tendency  to  limit 
them  to  the  few  and  very  expert  and  the 
majority,  finding  it  not  worth  while  to  try  to 
make  the  "teams,"  fail  to  avail  themselves 
of  the  benefits  of  the  regular  muscle  training 
involved.  Girls  suffer  more  than  boys  in  this 
respect,  and,  while  there  is  no  question  of  the 
evils  of  child-labor,  more  of  the  young  suffer 
from  too  little  than  too  much  use  of  the 
muscles.  When  harm  comes  the  blame  should 
not  be  put  upon  the  mere  work  but  upon 
unhealthy  surroundings,  bad  work-rooms,  long 
hours,  great  monotony,  over-specialization  and 
excessive  use  of  the  accessory  and  neglect  of 
the  fundamental  muscles. 

The  effects  of  this  imperfect  development  of 
muscle  efficiency  are  exhibited  in  the  number  of 
ordinary  physical  acts  that  many  abolescents 
find  it  impossible  to  accomplish.  They  are 
also  shown  in  the  care  that  must  be  taken 


1 6  THE  ADOLESCENT  PERIOD 

to  spare  them  any  toil  that  is  severe  or  trying 
in  nature,  and  in  their  thin  arms  and  legs, 
stooped  shoulders,  and  shrunken  chests  and  in 
persistent  automatisms  and  other  marks  of 
constitutional  feebleness. 

Recognizing  the  importance  of  complete 
structural  and  functional  growth  and  accurate 
adjustment  of  all  muscles,  not  only  for  motor 
efficiency  but  for  mental  development,  and 
remembering  the  fact  that  existing  conditions, 
industrial  and  recreational,  do  not  favor  this 
result,  it  is  easy  to  appreciate  the  necessity  for 
certain  definite  systems  of  muscle  culture. 
The  best  of  these  are  the  following: 

I.  Industrial  Education. — Modern  increase 
of  competition,  complexity  of  manufacturing 
processes  and  the  abolition  of  the  old  system 
of  apprenticeship,  in  which  a  youth  was  bound 
to  a  master  to  learn  his  craft,  make  industrial 
education  necessary,  not  only  to  attain  excel- 
lence in  any  trade  but  for  the  mere  ability  to 
make  a  living  wage.  This  instruction  is  at- 
tended with  more  or  less  success  in  the  various 
work-schools  and  trade  classes  which  are 
slowly  becoming  more  numerous  and  better 
in  our  country.     Such  instruction  should  be 


GROWTH  17 

diversified  and  not  limited  to  a  single  tool  or 
process,  in  order  to  develop  the  fundamental 
before  the  accessory  abilities  required  in 
delicate  work.  In  this  way  automatisms  are 
best  subordinated  and  a  firm  foundation  laid 
for  future  intellectual  efforts.  This  training 
may  be  undertaken  safely  during  the  periods 
of  rapid  increase  of  muscle  power,  about  the 
age  of  puberty,  when  strictly  manual  training 
is  apt  to  over-strain  the  fine  muscles. 

The  best  industrial  education  is  obtainable 
on  a  farm,  partly  on  account  of  the  many 
different  things  that  must  be  well  done  if  it 
be  properly  managed,  and  partly  because 
of  the  favorable  health  conditions  pertaining 
to  life  in  the  country.  The  worst,  on  the 
other  hand,  is  factory  training.  It  is  too 
specialized.  It  is  ordinarily  limited  to  a 
single  step  of  some  long  and  complicated 
procedure,  and  has  for  its  object  only  rapid 
preparation  for  earning  a  living,  and  very  fre- 
quently, too,  undermines  the  general  health 
through  unsanitary  surroundings. 

II.  Manual  Training. — This  method  as  car- 
ried on  in  special  institutions  and  in  allotted 
courses  in  the  public  schools  tends  to  a  better 


1 8  THE  ADOLESCENT  PERIOD 

practical  education.  The  idea,  as  the  name 
implies,  is  to  train  the  hands  primarily.  As 
this  cannot  be  done  without  training  the  mind, 
on  account  of  the  already  mentioned  intimate 
association  of  the  motor  and  mental  nervous 
centres,  the  results  are  to  broaden  the  intelli- 
gence and  increase  interest  in  the  acquisition  of 
knowledge,  to  create  promptness  in  action, 
dexterity,  and  a  desire  to  do  really  good  work 
and  thus  to  augment  effectiveness  and  prepare 
the  student  for  some  useful  life  occupation. 
Practically  these  ends  are  not,  at  present, 
perfectly  attained.  The  ordinary  methods  of 
this  system  have  the  faults  of  not  appealing 
sufficiently  to  the  intellect.  They  are  too 
centred  upon  teaching  skill  in  technique  and 
to  the  making  only  of  parts  rather  than  of 
completed  things.  They  over-develop  one 
side  of  the  body  and  the  hands,  to  the  neglect 
of  the  muscles  of  the  legs,  back  and  trunk. 
Finally,  manual  training  has  not  advanced  with 
the  changes  in  modern  industrial  methods. 
To  be  really  useful  it  should,  according  to  the 
age  of  the  student,  furnish  for  the  muscles  the 
best  and  most  hygienic  work  for  increasing 
their  efficiency  and  symmetrical  development, 


GROWTH  19 

while  for  the  mind  an  understanding  of  the 
scientific  side  of  methods,  tools  and  products 
should  be  insisted  upon.  Further,  instead  of 
placing  all  pupils  of  an  age  in  a  class  to  be 
taught  the  same  rigidly  fixed  task,  the  in- 
struction should  be  adapted  to  the  carefully 
studied  needs  of  each  individual. 

III.  Gymnastics. — As  now  used  this  term 
includes  only  the  exercises  employed  in  physical 
culture.  Their  objects  are:  (a)  to  bring  out 
all  motor  possibilities,  (b)  to  increase  volitional 
control  so  that  all  actions  may  be  consciously 
willed,  (c)  to  economize  force  in  postures  and 
movements,  and  (d)  to  ensure  symmetry  and 
normal  proportion. 

(a)  The  ordinary  activities  of  life,  the  various 
forms  of  labor  and  even  many  of  the  outdoor 
games  exercise  only  a  limited  number  of 
muscles,  leaving  the  others  and  many  possible 
combinations  latent  and  wasting,  and,  in 
consequence,  there  are  many  things  that  the 
average  youth  cannot  do.  One  system  of 
gymnastics,  originated  by  Jahn,  aims,  by  a 
variety  of  postures  and  movements,  to  de- 
velop dormant  or  degenerating  and  also  new 
motor  powers,  and  by  really  general  culture 


20  THE   ADOLESCENT   PERIOD 

to  establish  the  greatest  muscle  capacity. 
This  plan  is  very  applicable  to  adolescents, 
and  would  be  perfect  if  it  were  possible  ac- 
curately to  measure  the  amount  and  character 
of  exercise  required  by  each  muscle  or  neces- 
sary to  the  best  co-ordination,  especially  in 
the  direction  of  neglected  or  new  activities. 
Still,  though  this  cannot  be  done,  it  is  un- 
questionably useful  if  careful  attention  be 
paid  to  the  personal  element,  different  in- 
dividuals requiring  very  diverse  courses  of 
training. 

(b)  Many  of  our  activities  are,  or  become, 
matters  of  habit,  and  are  to  a  greater  or  less 
degree  automatic.  The  more  these  can  be 
brought  into  the  province  of  consciousness, 
the  more  the  engaged  muscles  come  under  the 
restraint  of  the  will  and  a  greater  number  of 
new  combinations  become  possible  and  much 
energy  is  conserved.  Some  of  the  Swedish 
exercises  are  employed  for  this  purpose.  The 
most  useful  of  these  are  those  that  require 
close  attention  and  quick  volition  to  convert 
into  muscle  movements  the  commands  of 
a  leader  and  accurately  and  promptly  to 
imitate    his    actions.      Here,    also,    individ- 


GROWTH  21 


ual    prescription,    though    difficult,    is    very 
important. 

(c)  Force  may  be  economized  by  a  method 
(Ling's)  which  tends,  by  position  and  move- 
ments, to  relax  the  flexor  and  increase  the 
strength  of  the  extensor  muscles  and  thus 
overcome  the  effects  of  the  doubled-up  position 
assumed  by  the  body  before  birth  and  seen 
after  in  sitting  and  in  states  of  fatigue^  The 
head  is  balanced  upon  the  spine  with  little 
help  from  the  muscles,  the  shoulders  are 
thrown  back  easing  the  chest,  the  spine  is 
held  erect  freeing  the  abdomen,  and  altogether 
bones  are  made  to  relieve  muscles.  This 
means  an  erect  posture  with  the  greatest  ease 
and  the  least  waste  of  energy,  and,  at  the  same 
time,  a  better  mental  poise,  as  there  always 
seems  to  be  more  buoyancy  when  the  extensor, 
rather  than  the  flexor,  muscles  are  in  control. 
The  movements  of  this  method  educate  feeble, 
neglected  muscles,  those  not  called  upon  in 
common  activities,  and  secure  better  general 
development.  They  prevent  the  deformities 
resulting  from  excessive  use  of  muscle  groups 
and  over-specialization  in  labor.     Like  other 


22  THE   ADOLESCENT  PERIOD 

exercises  they  must  be  carefully  adapted  to 
personal  requirements. 

(d)  Gymnastics,  to  secure  symmetry  and 
proportion,  involve  primarily  measurements 
of  physical  dimensions  and  tests  of  strength, 
and  secondarily,  prescription  of  the  exercises 
calculated  to  correct  whatever  deficiencies  may 
be  present,  the  standard  being  the  average  for 
the  age,  weight  and  height.  These  measure- 
ments are  charted  and  so,  later,  are  the  results 
of  exercise,  and  this  record  of  progress  creates 
an  interest  in  and  encouragement  to  continued 
work,  especially  if  thereby  some  hereditary 
imperfection  or  weakness  be  seen  to  be  disap- 
pearing. Further,  accomplished  physical  im- 
provement may  lead  to  a  desire  for  moral  and 
intellectual  betterment. 

In  the  efforts  for  general  physical  culture, 
care  must  be  taken  not  to  warp  any  particularly 
good  growth  tendency,  and  not  to  ruin  in- 
dividuality by  monotonous  uniformity.  Weak 
parts,  too,  must  not  be  over-worked.  Ordi- 
nary gymnastics  do  more  for  the  arms,  shoulders 
and  trunk  than  for  the  legs  and  are  almost 
entirely  wanting  in  mental  influence,  and  in 
these  respects  are  open  to  amendment;  still 


GROWTH  23 

they  are  very  serviceable  during  adolescence 
and  the  use  of  the  gymnasium  should  be 
general  and  not  limited  to  a  few  athletes.  So 
far  as  the  body  is  concerned  the  effects  of 
systematic  exercise  with  "training"  are  re- 
markable; the  muscles  are  strengthened,  vital 
force  increased,  and  ability  developed  to  endure 
the  strain  of  city  life  and  resist  disease;  at  the 
same  time  habits  of  temperance  and  chastity 
are  encouraged. 

IV.  Play,  Gaines  and  Sports. — Play  brings 
out  many  hereditary  and  rudimentary  motor 
habits  and,  in  contradistinction  to  toil,  is  never 
concerned  with  anything  really  new.  For  this 
reason  play  is  a  pleasure  and,  unlike  set 
systems  of  exercise,  is  as  much  a  matter  of 
mind  as  of  body.  It  neither  over-trains  the 
physical  side  of  the  organism — exaggerating 
the  muscular  elements — nor  unduly  cultivates 
the  mental  side,  causing  weakness  or  automa- 
tisms. Play  develops  each.  Besides  being 
the  natural  it  is  the  best  sort  of  exercise 
because  it  produces  perfect  growth.  Play 
gives  an  enjoyable  outlet  to  tendencies  which 
might  otherwise  lead  to  the  use  of  stimulants 
or  to  sexual  vices.    It  does  much  to  realize 


24  THE  ADOLESCENT  PERIOD 

the  ideal  of  a  sane  mind  in  a  sound  body.  It 
develops  muscle  power  and  courage.  It  leads 
to  purity  of  life  and  good  habits.  It  gives 
energy,  individuality,  quick  decision  and 
promptness  in  willed  actions.  It  lifts  troubles 
from  the  mind  and,  to  the  healthy,  is  a  never- 
failing  source  of  exhilaration  and  recreation. 

Some  plays  give  greater  pleasure  and  are 
more  absorbing  than  others  because  they  bring 
into  action  old  racial  traits.  Thus  in  man's 
beginning,  accurate  throwing,  running,  hitting 
with  a  club  were  essential  to  survival  both  in 
obtaining  food  and  in  combat.  While  this 
need  no  longer  exists,  the  same  activities 
instinctively  demand  cultivation  for  motor 
efficiency.  Hence,  games  with  a  bat  and  ball 
are  racially  familiar  and  correspondingly  at- 
tractive, and  the  degree  of  interest  and  enjoy- 
ment attending  any  form  of  play  is  a  measure 
of  its  developmental  value. 

As  previously  stated,  the  process  of  growth 
is  not  uniformly  continuous.  It  is  subject 
to  times  of  rapid  increase  alternating  with 
intervals  of  comparative  rest,  and  to  get  the 
best  results  from  any  form  of  physical  culture 
advantage  must  be  taken  of  the  former  or 


GROWTH  25 

nascent  periods.  The  natural  exercise  of  play 
is  no  exception  to  this  rule,  and  in  this  con- 
nection it  is  interesting  to  note  the  manner  in 
which  play  instinctively  changes  in  character 
at  different  ages.  Before  the  age  of  six 
children  rarely  play  games  spontaneously,  but 
do  so  at  the  suggestion  and  under  the  direction 
of  their  caretakers.  After  eight,  games  requir- 
ing physical  activity  are  preferred,  and  ten  or 
eleven  is  the  age  when  the  variety  is  greatest. 
Then  selection  begins  and  more  attention  is 
given  to  fewer  pastimes.  Games  involving 
pursuit  increase  markedly  from  six  to  nine,  are 
almost  abandoned  at  sixteen  and  the  use  of 
toys  and  "make  believe"  plays  decrease  still 
earlier.  With  boys,  to  eighteen,  games  with  a 
ball  rise  constantly  in  popularity.  In  girls, 
cards  and  other  table  games  increase  steadily 
from  ten  to  fifteen.  In  boys,  after  twelve,  a 
large  proportion,  one-third  or  more,  of  games 
involve  contest  and  struggle  to  gain  physical 
advantage  and  mastery  over  companions. 
"Team"  games  soon  begin,  in  which  the 
individual  is  subordinate  to  his  mates  and  to  a 
leader,  all  working  to  a  given  and  planned  end. 
Now,  too,  the  games  are  often  of  a  rough,  out- 


26  THE   ADOLESCENT  PERIOD 

door  character.  Later,  there  is  still  closer 
association  in  sports  with  more  call  upon  the 
virile  qualities  of  bravery,  loyalty  and  self- 
control.  In  girls,  there  is  a  steady  decrease 
in  running  plays  from  nine  to  eighteen  years, 
with  a  rapid  leaning  to  games  of  chance. 
Organization  and  specialization,  so  noticeable 
in  boys,  are  almost  absent,  and  seasonal  games 
far  less  common,  on  account  of  a  greater  in- 
clination for  indoor  life.  The  desire  to  play 
with  dolls  is  most  marked  about  the  ninth 
year  and  is  usually  over  by  fifteen,  though  it 
may  continue  for  years  longer. 

The  fundamental  muscles  naturally  incline 
to  rhythmic  movements  at  all  times  but 
especially  during  the  age  of  greatest  increase  in 
strength,  and  such  movements  are  more  facile 
because  they  require  less  conscious  mental 
effort  or  attention.  This  accounts  for  the 
pleasure  the  young  take  in  dancing,  marching 
or  exercising  in  time  to  music,  and  for  the 
work-songs  of  sailors  and  others  which  ease 
and  socialize  labor  and  at  the  same  time  con- 
centrate the  efforts  of  a  number  of  hands  in 
lifting  or  pulling.  Dancing  under  proper  re- 
strictions and  in   good  surroundings  besides 


GROWTH  27 

being  an  amusement  is  a  rhythmic  exercise 
which  exceedingly  well  meets  the  motor  re- 
quirements of  the  young,  and,  while  much  has 
been  said  against  the  purity  of  modern  dances, 
it  is  quite  possible  that  they  may  work  off 
vicious  propensities  in  a  comparatively  harm- 
less way. 

About  the  time  of  the  onset  of  puberty  in  the 
male,  a  spirit  of  pugnacity  normally  appears. 
Though  more  or  less  brutal,  no  effort  should 
be  made  to  stamp  out  this  instinct,  but  it 
should  be  tempered  and  directed;  this  may  be 
done  by  boxing,  fencing,  wrestling  and  military 
training. 

Over-pugnacity  is  certainly  a  bad  trait,  but 
a  cowardly  refusal  to  fight  when  necessary  is 
worse,  and  every  healthy  boy  at  or  about  the 
age  of  twelve  years  should  be  taught  to  box  in 
order  to  hold  within  bounds  and  discipline  the 
fighting  tendency.  With  bad  associations  re- 
moved, boxing  is  a  very  manly  art.  It  trains 
the  muscles,  cultivates  quickness  of  eye,  hand 
and  foot,  increases  decision,  will  power,  self- 
reliance  and  self-restraint.  It  lessens  nervous 
irritability  and  greatly  amends  passionate, 
peevish  and  effeminate  dispositions. 


28  THE  ADOLESCENT  PERIOD 

Fencing  is  an  allied  art  which,  while  improving 
the  figure  and  bodily  poise  and  giving  quick- 
ness of  eye  and  suppleness  of  arm  and  wrist, 
develops  one  side  excessively,  and  is  less 
attractive  to  the  Anglo-Saxon  boy,  since  it  does 
not  satisfy  the  instinctive  desire  to  physically 
punish  without  maiming  an  antagonist. 

Wrestling,  the  primitive  method  of  un- 
armed conflict,  affords,  by  the  close  contact 
of  body  to  body,  so  many  opportunities  for 
unfair  practices  that  as  a  sport  it  must  be 
very  carefully  guarded.  In  a  crude  form  wres- 
tling is  a  very  common  amusement  with  boys 
and  is  also  a  popular  branch  of  scientific  ath- 
letics and,  under  proper  restrictions,  a  good 
one  as  it  cultivates  many  varied  movements 
and  increases  strength,  waryness  and  agility. 

A  judicious  amount  of  military  training 
very  successfully  and  healthfully  regulates 
the  combat  desire  and  has  other  advantages. 
Company  marching  requires  correct  and 
simultaneous  movements  of  the  legs  and  arms 
and  good  carriage;  the  drill  with  weapons 
gives  the  individual  a  feeling  of  co-operation 
and  care  for  personal  appearance  and  of 
equipments,  and   the  uniform  removes  dress 


GROWTH  29 

distinctions.  Further  than  this,  discipline, 
regular  hours,  wholesome  food,  outdoor  exer- 
cise, tactics  and  camp  life  all  favor  health 
of  body  and  mind.  A  drill  master,  a  uni- 
form or  a  few  features  of  a  soldier's  life 
introduced  into  the  ordinary  school  give  a 
better  character  to  its  teachings,  create  new 
standards  of  honor  and  tend  to  increase 
patriotism. 

With  the  longing  for  combat,  the  boy  in  his 
teens  develops  a  desire  of  organization  leading, 
in  his  play,  to  association  into  teams  and 
crews.  Football,  baseball  and  rowing  involve 
such  association  and  have  an  educational 
value.  The  rules  governing  these  sports  are 
quite  intricate,  and  in  learning  and  following 
them  the  mind  is  cultivated  at  the  same  time 
that  the  muscles  are  trained.  The  subordina- 
tion, too,  of  each  member  of  a  team  to  its 
captain  augments  the  social  and  co-operative 
instincts,  and  the  glory  of  school  or  college 
arouses  a  spirit  of  servitude  and  devotion.  It 
must  be  remembered,  however,  that  to  obtain 
the  best  educational  results  for  the  individual, 
any  team  must  assume  the  sportsman-like 
attitude  of  preferring  a  clean  game  with  defeat 


30  THE   ADOLESCENT  PERIOD 

to  victory  won  in  an  unfair  way,  and  the 
temptation  to  "do  anything  to  win"  must  be 
rigidly  avoided. 

Of  other  forms  of  sport,  swimming — espe- 
cially in  natural  water,  in  contradistinction  to 
tanks — is  an  admirable  exercise  and  one  that 
satisfies  a  racial  instinct  so  prevalent  that  to 
reach  water  and  get  a  swim  has  been  found  to 
be  one  of  the  chief  incentives  to  truancy.  The 
movements  required  in  swimming,  unlike  those 
in  walking  or  running,  exercise  the  involuntary 
muscles  and  strengthen  the  heart  and  blood- 
vessels. The  surface  contact  of  cold  water 
contracts  the  capillaries  and  sends  the  blood 
inward  and  thus  increases  the  activity  of 
kidneys,  lungs  and  digestive  organs.  The 
reaction  on  leaving  the  water  is  a  tonic  to  the 
cutaneous  circulation,  and  finally,  this  form  of 
bathing  powerfully  reduces  plethora  of  the 
sexual  organs. 

When  games  and  sports  receive  the  attention 
that  they  do  now  in  school  athletics,  which  will 
be  the  subject  of  the  next  chapter,  they 
possess  in  a  marked  degree  the  very  desirable 
attributes  of  play  already  mentioned,  and  in 
addition  supply  safe  subjects  for  thought  and 


GROWTH  31 

conversation.  But  this  is  the  case  only  when 
they  are  reasonably  managed.  If  given  too 
prominent  a  place  and  overdone  they  are 
fraught  with  dangers  that,  while  less  accen- 
tuated than  after  the  boy  has  entered  college, 
are  still  present  and  must  be  avoided.  Among 
these  are  distraction  from  study;  undue  de- 
velopment of  brutal  impulses  and  of  muscle  to 
the  neglect  of  mind;  harmful  newspaper 
notoriety;  exaggeration  of  the  importance  of 
winning  contests,  often  leading  to  unsports- 
manlike methods  of  play  that  ruin  the  morals, 
and  a  tendency  to  over-specialization  and 
limitation  of  participation  to  a  few  experts. 

In  conclusion  it  must  be  understood  that 
playfulness  is  energy  left  over  from  the  per- 
formance of  vital  functions,  digestion  or  res- 
piration for  instance,  and  children  who  cannot 
play  are  unable  to  study  or  work  without 
over-draft  upon  their  life  energies.  Any  task 
is  best  and  most  easily  accomplished  when  a 
play  interest  can  be  infused  into  it,  and  general 
education  might  well  begin  with  properly 
chosen  and  directed  games.  A  school  that 
discourages  play  favors  dulness. 


CHAPTER  II 
PHYSICAL  EDUCATION 

ATHLETIC   TRAINING   IN  BOYS 

The  beneficial  effects  of  muscle  culture,  and 
particularly  of  the  outdoor  sports  now  so 
uniformly  encouraged  in  good  schools,  can  be 
seen  in  the  better  health  and  development  of 
the  past  few  generations  of  boys.  Yet,  like 
many  another  useful  thing,  academic  athletics 
require  careful  guidance,  and  there  is  little 
doubt  that  they  should  have  more  skilled 
attention  than  they  usually  receive.  No  one 
can  rightly  claim  that,  up  to  the  present  time, 
a  close  approximation  to  the  best  possible 
results  has  been  attained;  nor  can  the  fact  be 
denied  that  they  may  produce  undesirable  and 
injurious  effects  which  may  escape  attention 
until  detected  by  a  physician  after  the  lad's  life 
is  ruined  by  a  crippled  heart  or  broken-down 
nervous  system. 

These  unfortunate  issues  are  encountered 
32 


PHYSICAL  EDUCATION  33 

most  frequently  between  the  thirteenth  and 
eighteenth  years,  when  the  greatest  growth 
changes  are  taking  place  in  the  body  and  its 
organs,  and  when  the  school-boy's  training  is 
not  looked  upon  as  seriously  and  is  placed  in 
less  competent  hands  than  it  is  after  he  enters 
college,  older,  better  grown  and  really  in  less 
need  of  very  careful  management.  Every 
college  team  has  its  medical  attendant,  its 
trainer,  its  masseurs,  its  highly  salaried  coach 
with  his  corps  of  assistants,  and  its  units  are 
looked  after  as  thoroughly  as  a  pugilist  or  a 
horse  about  to  enter  the  ring  or  run  a  race. 
On  the  other  hand  the  younger  boy,  while  now 
given  a  playground  and  set  hours  during  which 
he  is  required  to  play,  is  fortunate  if  his  sports 
be  overlooked  by  a  master  who  has  been 
something  of  an  athlete  in  his  time.  This  is 
certainly  better  than  no  supervision  whatever, 
but  is  quite  inadequate. 

The  qualifications  for  a  director  of  juvenile 
athletics  are  an  understanding  of  normal 
growth  processes;  a  capacity  to  make  a  suffi- 
ciently thorough  physical  examination  to  de- 
termine individual  needs;  ability  to  adapt 
exercise  to  and  determine  its  effects  upon 
3 


34  THE   ADOLESCENT   PERIOD 

development  and  health,  and  familiarity  with 
dietetics  and  hygiene.  Such  requisites  imply 
a  special  knowledge  that  is  not  possessed  by 
ordinary  masters  or  by  parents  with  whom 
often  rests  much  of  the  general  management, 
and  consequently  both  must  have  assistance. 
This  in  boarding-schools  can  be  secured  by 
adding  to  the  staff  a  medical  director  who 
should  be  responsible  for  both  physical  training 
and  hygiene,  and  in  day-schools  through  the 
family  physician  who  should  make  preliminary 
investigations,  suggest  appropriate  exercises 
and  subsequently  keep  the  boy  under  careful 
observation. 

The  school-boy  after  the  age  of  thirteen 
years  enters  a  period  of  rapid  growth  in  height 
and  weight.  At  the  same  time,  as  will  be  seen 
later  (Chapter  III),  there  may  be  dispropor- 
tionate development,  as  of  the  two  sides  of 
the  body  for  instance,  or  of  the  bones  or 
muscles,  and  a  liability  to  poor  health  that  is 
very  decided  from  the  twelfth  to  the  four- 
teenth years.  In  this  interval,  too,  the  sys- 
temic strain  of  the  establishment  of  puberty  is 
at  its  maximum.  Besides  these  general  condi- 
tions   the    synchronous    growth    changes    in 


PHYSICAL  EDUCATION  35 

certain  parts  and  organs  of  the  body  are  im- 
portant and  may  be  studied  in  more  detail. 

The  bones,  like  other  organic  tissues,  are 
composed  of  cells  and  supplied  with  blood- 
vessels and  nerves,  and  increase  greatly  in  size 
from  birth  to  maturity,  their  most  rapid  growth 
taking  place  just  before  and  after  puberty. 
They  are  subject  to  developmental  irregulari- 
ties; thus  ossification  may  be  retarded  or 
arrested,  or  calcareous  hardening  of  cartilage 
may  be  premature  or  excessive,  making  them 
too  dense  and  large  and  causing  them  to  en- 
croach upon  adjacent  structures.  Again  there 
may  be  faults  in  chemical  composition.  Some- 
times, an  over-proportion  of  lime  salts  resulting 
in  brittleness  with  great  liability  to  fracture; 
at  others,  a  deficiency  of  these  salts  making  the 
bones  too  soft  and  readily  bent  and  twisted, 
the  condition  encountered  in  rickets. 

Without  any  actual  disease,  different  forms 
of  spinal  curvature  are  apt  to  occur  during  the 
period  of  rapid  bone  growth,  and  now,  also, 
irregular  or  inordinate  traction  of  unduly 
developed  muscles  is  quite  capable  of  produc- 
ing deformities.  Like  this  unequal  strain  the 
carriage  of  the  body  has  a  marked  effect.    An 


2,6  THE  ADOLESCENT  PERIOD 

habitual  stooping  posture  leading  to  contrac- 
tion of  the  chest  with  consequent  impeded 
respiration  and  depressed  vitality;  so,  too, 
prolonged  sitting  with  the  legs  crossed  inter- 
feres with  pelvic  development. 

The  heart  materially  increases  in  size  from 
birth  to  the  fourteenth  year,  and  with  the 
advent  of  puberty  must  respond,  by  increased 
functional  activity,  to  the  widening  area  of 
circulation  that  takes  place  at  this  time.  This 
demand  on  the  cardiac  muscle  is  attended  by 
enlargement  which  may  be  great  enough  to 
appear  abnormal,  but  this  is  only  temporary 
and,  provided  general  health  be  good  and  there 
be  no  excessive  or  continuous  strain,  is  soon 
compensated  and  the  size  of  the  organ  again 
becomes  proportionate  to  that  of  the  frame. 

Before  puberty,  the  blood-vessel  area  is 
large  compared  with  the  size  of  the  heart; 
after,  the  reverse  is  the  case.  This  latter 
condition  is  attended  by  a  more  forcible  cardiac 
impulse,  by  higher  blood-pressure,  and  often 
by  transient  palpitation,  alteration  in  the 
rhythm  of  the  ventricular  contractions  and 
other  disturbances  that,  while  entirely  inde- 
pendent of  structural  disease,  give  rise  to  con- 


PHYSICAL  EDUCATION  37 

sciousness  of  the  presence  of  the  heart,  a 
common  and  uncomfortable  symptom  at  this 
age.  Now,  also,  the  pulse  rate  decreases,  a 
change  which  depends  more  upon  height- 
growth  than  age,  the  beats  being  uniformly 
slower  in  those  of  tall  than  of  short  stature. 

The  lungs  and  chest  increase  in  size  with  the 
rest  of  the  body  and  take  part  in  the  rapid 
growth  of  the  pubescent  years.  In  boys  the 
rapidity  of  yearly  increase  in  the  volume  of 
air  that  can  be  expelled  after  a  full  inspiration — 
the  vital  capacity — measured  by  spirometer, 
augments  at  the  age  of  fourteen  years,  de- 
creases^ little  at  fifteen,  and  is  greatest  at 
sixteen,  though  there  is  a  constant  and  decided 
gain  throughout  these  years,  and  the  rate  of 


increase  is  much  greater  in  those  who  have  the 
advantage  of  proper  physical  culture  The 
development  of  vital  capacity  is  an  important 
element  of  strength  and  attends  gain  in  weight 
more  closely  than  in  height.  At  puberty 
the  chest  capacity  is  lessened  by  the  normally 
rapid  cardiac  growth,  though  this  reduction  is 
more  than  compensated  by  the  coincident 
expansion  of  the  thoracic  space  and  the 
increased   area   of   the   pulmonary   air   cells. 


38  THE   ADOLESCENT  PERIOD 

The  girth  of  the  chest,  measured  on  the  nipple 
line,  enlarges  most  markedly  from  the  four- 
teenth to  the  seventeenth  years.  Its  increase 
is  less  rapid  than  that  of  vital  capacity,  as  it 
is  little  dependent  upon  tissue  elasticity. 

The  relation  between  vital  capacity  and  body 
weight  is  called  the  vital  index.  One  object 
of  athletic  training  is  to  increase  the  former 
while  reducing  any  excess  of  the  latter. 
Exercise  also  gives  greater  efficiency  to 
respiratory  surfaces,  and  the  ability  to  breathe 
freely  and  deeply  insures  an  abundant  supply 
of  essential  oxygen.  It  frees  the  blood  from 
carbon  dioxide  and  augments  endurance  under 
effort  and  resistance  to  disease,  and  is  a  funda- 
mental condition  of  normal  growth  and  health. 

The  number  of  respiratory  movements  de- 
creases from  infancy,  when  it  ranges  as  high  as 
forty  per  minute,  to  puberty,  when,  in  a  state 
of  quiescence,  it  falls  to  twenty  or  eighteen. 
Afterward  the  rate  continues  unchanged  unless 
affected  by  disease. 

The  growth  of  muscles  and  of  motor  power 
as  well  as  some  methods  of  securing  their  due 
evolution  have  been  considered  already  (Chap- 
ter I).     It  is  necessary,  only,  in  this  connection 


PHYSICAL  EDUCATION  39 

to  reiterate  the  need  of  a  proper  estimation,  in 
relation  to  growth  processes,  of  the  periods 
when  exercise  will  be  most  beneficial,  and  to 
recall  the  desirability  of  symmetrical  develop- 
ment of  the  fundamental  and  accessory  muscles 
and  the  dangers  of  over-forcing  either  group  or 
of  over-cultivating  mentality.  A  boy  should 
leave  school  neither  a  muscle  nor  a  mental 
machine,  but  with  a  sound  foundation  for 
subsequent  thorough  training  of  both  body 
and  intellect. 

The  brain  grows  most  during  the  first  six 
years  of  life,  though  there  is  a  slight  and  steady 
increase  until  the  age  of  fourteen  when  it 
j-eaches  about  its  full  size.  After  this,  de- 
velopment is  continued  by  the  folding  in  of 
the  convolutions  and  by  other  structural 
refinements,  tending  to  the  greater  functional 
power  and  perfection  exhibited  at  maturity. 
Some  of  this  tissue  refinement  is  necessary  for 
rational  thought  and  the  higher  mental  proc- 
esses that  are  rarely  possible  before  the 
twelfth  or  fourteenth  year.  Before  this  age 
instruction  should  be  simple,  restricted  as  to 
hours  and  well  interspersed  with  play,  and 
devoted    chiefly    to    the    cultivation    of    the 


4<D  THE   ADOLESCENT  PERIOD 

memory  and   the   special   sense   centres,  i.e., 
those  of  sight,  hearing,  etc. 

The  kidneys  may  be  referred  to  here  because 
their  function  is  connected  with  certain  phobias 
that  are  common  in  early  adolescence.  These 
glands  grow  from  birth  well  into  adult  life, 
and  their  secretion  is  the  medium  of  removal 
from  the  body  of  urea,  which  is  the  principal 
nitrogenous  product  of  retrograde  tissue  change. 
Sometimes  about  the  age  of  fourteen  there  is 
transient  albuminuria,  sufficiently  marked  to 
suggest  renal  disease,  and  another  occasional 
occurrence  is  a  temporary  appearance  of  sugar 
in  the  urine.  At  this  time,  too,  the  nervous 
fears  mentioned  above  are  prone  to  arise  in 
those  who  have  had  their  attention  directed 
to  the  urine  by  other  victims  or  by  reading 
misleading  advertisements.  They  begin  to  ex- 
amine the  excretion  daily  and  become  much 
alarmed  if  they  find  it  turbid  or  containing  a 
red  or  w7hite  deposit,  or  if  its  odor  be  strong  or 
the  reverse,  and  exaggerate  these  trifling  fea- 
tures into  indications  of  serious  disorders  of  the 
kidneys  or  of  the  sexual  organs.  Urged  by 
their  fears  they  adopt  some  special  diet  and 
regimen;  enter  into  minute  comparisons  with 


PHYSICAL  EDUCATION  41 

their  youthful  companions,  and  unless  they 
be  confiding  enough  to  find  a  ready  ending  of 
their  anxieties  through  the  counsel  of  some 
experienced  older  friend,  they  frequently  drift 
into  the  hands  of  charlatans  to  undergo  need- 
less and  purposely  prolonged  treatment. 

From  this  brief  outline  it  is  easily  seen  that 
throughout  the  school  years  important  develop- 
mental changes  are  taking  place  in  the  com- 
ponent parts  of  the  frame — the  bones  and 
muscles — and  in  such  vital  organs  as  the  heart, 
lungs  and  brain.  In  addition  we  know  that  at 
this  period  growth  progression  varies  markedly 
in  different  individuals  and  that  it  is  greatly 
influenced  by  exercise  or  the  lack  of  it,  either 
extreme  being  harmful.  All  of  these  condi- 
tions should  weigh  in  prescribing  the  quality 
and  amount  of  muscle  training,  and  should 
be  investigated  in  the  preliminary  physical 
examination.  This  must  not  be  delayed  after 
the  desultory  plays  of  childhood  have  given 
place  to  boyish  sports. 

The  points  to  be  determined  are  weight  and 
height  and  their  approximation  to  the  normal 
correlation;  the  presence  or  absence  of  spinal 
curvature;  the  equality  in  length  of  the  legs 


42  THE   ADOLESCENT  PERIOD 

and  arms  and  the  general  symmetry  of  the 
body;  the  normality  of  the  heart  as  to  size, 
sounds,  rate  and  rhythm  of  pulsations;  the 
girth  of  the  chest;  the  vital  capacity,  and  the 
effect  of  such  moderate  exertion  as  a  short 
run  upon  the  frequency  of  pulse  and  respira- 
tion. The  state  of  the  throat  in  regard  to 
enlarged  tonsils,  and  of  the  nose  as  to  adenoids 
or  other  obstruction,  and  perfection  of  sight 
and  hearing  are  important  but  are  matters 
for  a  medical  expert,  as  are  also  opinions  on 
general  health  and  robustness  and  predispo- 
sition to  constitutional  disease. 

Should  this  investigation  place  the  boy  in 
the  average  normal  class  he  may  safely  enter 
into  all  the  school  sports,  being  subject  only 
to  the  general  restrictions  to  be  stated  later. 
On  the  other  hand,  should  the  spine  be  bent, 
the  shoulders  stooped,  or  should  there  be 
inequality  in  the  development  of  the  limbs  or 
sides  of  the  body,  special  exercises  are  required 
and  he  should  be  trained  by  himself  until  the 
deformity  has  been  overcome.  Again,  a  boy 
with  over-large  heart  or  a  contracted  chest 
must  not  take  part  in  the  active  games  of  his 
fellows    until    comparative    rest    in    the    one 


PHYSICAL  EDUCATION  43 

instance  and  special  breathing  and  expanding 
exercises  in  the  other  have  removed  the  hamper- 
ing condition.  Of  the  latter  cases  there  are 
many  in  which  constriction,  with  consequent 
embarrassed  breathing,  is  the  result  of  adenoids 
or  hypertrophied  tonsils  obstructing  the  res- 
piration high  up  in  the  air  passages.  Unless 
these  growths  be  removed  by  efficient  surgical 
operations  very  little  can  be  done  to  increase 
the  circumference  of  the  thorax  and  vital 
capacity. 

Besides  these  instances  with  noticeable  phys- 
ical defects  there  are  other  city-bred  boys 
who  have  been  pampered  and  unduly  guarded 
by  mother  or  governess,  who  have  taken  no 
exercise  beyond  dancing  lessons  or  formal  walks 
and  have  no  idea  of  really  boyish  pastimes. 
These  unfortunates  are  puny  or  lax  fibred 
and  effeminate,  and  before  they  take  part  in 
any  athletic  games  require  individual  and 
gradual  but  progressive  muscle  culture,  and 
must  be  taught  co-ordination  of  eye  and  hand, 
familiarity  with  the  implements  of  sport  and 
interest  in  pursuits  involving  motor  dexterity. 
Otherwise  their  ineptness  is  a  source  of  em- 
barrassment and  is  so  ridiculed  by  their  play- 


44  THE  ADOLESCENT   PERIOD 

mates  that  they  are  quickly  discouraged,  give 
up  trying  and  become  uninterested  onlookers 
if  not  actually  influential  in  demoralizing  their 
associates. 

Just  as  these  weaklings  are  to  be  trained 
apart,  so  is  it  necessary  in  athletics  to  separate 
normal  boys  of  different  ages,  letting  the 
beginners  compete  with  each  other  and  not 
with  their  older  schoolmates.  These,  through 
their  greater  strength,  may  injure  them,  or  so 
overwhelm  them  by  their  greater  expertness 
that,  on  either  side,  interest  in  sport  is  quickly 
destroyed. 

Measures  to  counteract  special  bodily  de- 
fects and  those  for  conditioning  purposes 
require  more  constant  and  critical  attention 
and  more  frequent  estimation  of  results  than 
are  necessary  in  the  physically  fit.  They 
embrace  light  gymnastics,  a  variety  of  move- 
ments without  apparatus,  and  breathing  ex- 
ercises, and  should  be  accomplished  as  much  as 
possible  out-of-doors,  or  in  a  spacious,  sunny 
room  with  plenty  of  fresh  air  when  the  weather 
is  very  cold.  The  effects  of  the  allotted 
exercises  should  be  ascertained  at  intervals 
six  or  eight  weeks.     The  same  applies  to  well- 


PHYSICAL  EDUCATION  45 

developed  boys,  though  in  them  the  re-examina- 
tions need  not  be  made  oftener  than  once  or 
twice  each  year.  The  findings  of  the  pre- 
liminary and  subsequent  examinations  should 
be  carefully  recorded. 

With  a  boy  in  fair  condition  there  are,  in 
addition  to  betterment  in  health,  growth  and 
endurance,  improvements  in  certain  special  di- 
rections marking  the  good  effect  of  athletics. 
These  are  a  decided  increase  in  the  important 
matter  of  vital  capacity  and  a  gain  in  muscle 
power,  indicated  by  greater  lift,  pull,  and 
putting  ability,  i.e.,  the  height  and  distance  that 
a  weight  can  be  hurled;  by  a  rapid  strengthen- 
ing of  leg,  biceps,  back  and  forearm  in  the 
order  named,  and  a  more  forcible  hand  grip  and 
greater  wrist  strength.  Such  gains  are  most 
decided  and  readily  produced  during  the  several 
years  of  pubescence  when  the  involved  funda- 
mental muscles  naturally  undergo  an  accession 
of  growth.  They  are  also  attended  by  increase 
in  stability,  control  of  reflex  impulses,  and 
precision  and  co-ordination  of  movement, 
conditions  indicating  progressive  mental  de- 
velopment and  in  which  the  delicate  accessory 
muscles  take  part.     In  this  connection,  how- 


46  THE  ADOLESCENT  PERIOD 

ever,  it  must  be  understood  that  athletics  have 
merely  an  indirect  bearing  upon  the  accessory 
muscles.  Also  while  the  fundamental  group 
is  being  developed,  during  the  period  of 
naturally  rapid  growth,  no  attempt  should  be 
made  to  cultivate  extreme  accuracy  in  acces- 
sory muscles  by  intricate  hand  or  brain  work. 
These  should  be  trained  earlier  or  later,  since 
a  double  strain  upon  growth  force  may  pro- 
duce precocity  and  nervous  and  muscular 
disturbances. 

Motor  education,  including  play,  games  and 
sports,  has  already  been  studied  (Chapter  I), 
and  here  it  will  be  necessary  only  to  refer 
briefly  to  gymnastics  and  then  pass  to  a  further 
discussion  of  open-air  sports  which  are  so 
valuable  for  development  and  which  now  take 
such  a  prominent  place  in  physical  training. 

Gymnastics  are  very  useful  in  their  way, 
particularly  as  a  substitute  for  outdoor  work 
in  the  earlier  months  of  the  year  when  the  days 
are  short  and  play-grounds  often  too  soggy  for 
use,  and  when  there  is  neither  snow  nor  ice 
for  winter  sports.  The  gymnasium  floor 
affords  space  for  boxing,  fencing,  wrestling, 
and  basket-ball,  and  it  is  quite  possible,  also, 


PHYSICAL  EDUCATION  47 

to  keep  up  a  continuous  training  for  outdoor 
sports  by  providing  rowing  machines,  cages 
for  practice  with  bat  and  ball,  squash  and 
hand-ball  courts,  vaulting  bars  and  so  on. 
These  make  for  interest  and  furnish  a  play 
element,  both  very  desirable  features  that  are 
lacking  in  the  old-fashioned  exercises  with 
dumb-bells,  Indian  clubs,  or  pulling  weights. 
Another  useful  sphere  of  gymnastics  is  that  of 
putting  in  condition  the  under-developed  and 
correcting  spinal  curvatures  and  various  de- 
formities. Such  cases,  at  first,  are  much  bene- 
fited by  simple  movements  of  the  body  and 
limbs  either  entirely  without  or  with  the 
lightest  weights,  and  later,  by  very  carefully 
selected  exercises  on  the  trapeze,  swinging 
rings,  and  vertical  and  horizontal  bars.  With 
either  feeble  or  strong,  all  gymnastics  require 
the  closest  individual  oversight  and  adaptation 
and  should  be  planned  to  give  strength  and 
agility  to  the  muscles,  without  straining  or 
hypertrophying  them  or  injuring  the  vital 
organs,  results  which  frequently  attended  the 
old-time  work  with  parallel-bars,  weight  lifting 
and  other  ponderous  exertions  that  filled  the 
monotonous  and  wearisome  hours  of  exercise. 


48  THE  ADOLESCENT  PERIOD 

Outdoor  sports  combine  both  play  and 
interest,  have  the  added  pleasure  of  contest, 
and  make  a  decided  appeal  to  the  intellect. 
They  surpass  gymnastics  in  general  evolutional 
value,  and  by  their  popularity  make  an  easy 
matter  of  any  course  of  training.  But  all  forms 
of  sport  are  not  equally  safe  and  even  the 
best  may  do  harm  if  pushed  to  excess.  This 
fact  is  demonstrated  in  a  boy  when  he  becomes 
pale  and  nervously  irritable;  sleeps  poorly; 
has  little  appetite  after  exertion;  suffers  from 
indigestion;  rapidly  loses  flesh;  is  constantly 
tired  and  apathetic ;  is  stupid  with  his  studies, 
or,  in  other  words,  "goes  stale."  For  this 
"over- trained"  condition  a  competent  phys- 
ical director  is  always  on  the  lookout,  and 
will  anticipate  serious  trouble  with  nerves, 
heart  or  other  organs  or  a  complete  break- 
down by  shortening  the  exercise,  changing  from 
one  sport  to  another  or,  if  the  warnings  be 
sufficiently  grave,  by  ordering  a  temporary  rest. 

The  best  of  the  sports  for  schoolboys  are 
those  in  which  a  ball  is  employed.  First 
baseball,  then  tennis  and  next  football. 
In  these  the  interest  of  play  and  contest, 
already  referred  to  as  very  essential  in  youth- 


PHYSICAL  EDUCATION  49 

ful  athletics,  enter  markedly.  Each  exercises 
the  motor  system  generally,  but  primarily  the 
arms,  back  and  legs,  the  systematic  use  of  the 
muscles  of  the  latter  being  of  great  conse- 
quence in  those  leading  a  sedentary  student's 
life.  Besides,  they  involve  enough  short-dis- 
tance running  to  increase  vital  capacity;  they 
train  the  eye;  produce  alertness  and  activity, 
and  improve  judgment  and  ability  to  think, 
decide  and  execute  quickly.  Accomplishing  all 
with  little  risk  of  straining  the  heart  or  ex- 
hausting nerve  force,  as  the  exertion  involved 
is  not  sustained,  there  being  frequent  oppor- 
tunities for  brief  rests  while  the  game  is  in 
progress.  The  dangers  of  football,  about 
which  so  much  has  been  said  and  written, 
have  been  very  materially  lessened  by  recent 
revisions  of  the  rules  of  play.  Those  that 
remain  cannot  be  fairly  used  as  arguments 
against  one  of  the  most  interesting  and  manly 
games,  and  they  can  be  practically  eliminated 
by  establishing  a  rule  permitting  only  boys  of 
about  the  same  age,  weight  and  strength  to 
compete  with  one  another. 

Golf  is  another  excellent  exercise  that  trains 
many  good  qualities.     For  schoolboys,   how- 


5<D  THE   ADOLESCENT   PERIOD 

ever,  it  is  too  sedate,  requires  too  much  time, 
and  altogether,  so  far  as  males  are  concerned, 
appeals  most  to  those  who  have  passed  the 
age  of  impetuosity  and  the  enjoyment  of 
strenuous  pastimes. 

Of  track  and  field  sports  the  broad  and  high 
jump,  pole  vaulting,  weight  putting  and  reason- 
able walking  matches  have  their  value,  though 
these  are  wanting  in  interest  and  compara- 
tively few  boys  are  willing  to  persevere  in  their 
practice.  Running  races — whether  the  dash, 
hurdle,  relay  or  long  distance — are  open  to 
adverse  criticism.  This  cannot  fail  to  be  the 
opinion  of  every  unbiased  observer  who  has 
attended  track  meets  and  has  seen  the  ex- 
hausted state  of  the  majority  of  runners  as 
they  reach  the  tape.  The  effort  is  excessive, 
puts  entirely  too  much  strain  on  the  heart  at 
any  age,  and  is  especially  trying  about  the 
period  of  puberty  when  the  organ  has  a 
tendency  to  temporary  enlargement.  If  em- 
ployed at  all  at  this  time,  with  the  object  of 
improving  "the  wind,"  the  run  should  be 
limited  to  a  jog-trot  covering  not  more  than 
half  a  mile.  A  distinction  must  be  made 
between     the    running     incidental     to    ball 


PHYSICAL  EDUCATION  5 1 

games  and  race-running,  and  though  strongly 
favoring  the  former  I  would  entirely  forbid 
the  latter  as  an  exercise  for  schoolboys  One 
expects  more  from  athletics  than  the  mere 
development  of  muscle  and  lung  capacity,  and 
in  these  days  of  motor  cars,  telephones  and 
aviation  it  is  difficult  to  recognize  any  advan- 
tage in  an  ability  to  run  a  few  miles  or  sur- 
vive a  Marathon. 

Rowing  is  an  efficient  developing  agent,  as 
well  as  an  accomplishment  that  may  be 
serviceable  on  occasion,  and  hence  is  desirable 
for  everyone.  Outside  of  the  rather  remote 
risk  of  drowning  it  has  few  objections,  cardiac 
strain  being  the  principal,  and  this  comes  under 
consideration  and  is  to  be  guarded  against 
only  in  hard  racing  over  a  long  course.  Pulling 
steadily  and  easily  one  may  row  a  light  boat 
for  hours  and  miles  with  little  fatigue  of 
general  or  cardiac  muscles,  but  a  fast  two-  or 
four-mile  race  often  causes  one  or  more  mem- 
bers of  the  crew  to  faint  or  even  fall  from  the 
shell  in  exhaustion,  and  of  course  such  an  ex- 
penditure of  force  can  only  be  hurtful.  A 
quarter-  to  a  half-mile  course  is  quite  long 
enough  for  school  racing. 


52  THE   ADOLESCENT  PERIOD 

Swimming,  both  a  very  favorite  pastime 
and  an  admirable  exercise,  should  be  taught 
to  every  one  in  childhood,  since  at  some  time  it 
may  be  the  means  of  saving  life.  No  one 
should  be  allowed  to  take  up  rowing  or  other 
water  sport  until  swimming  has  been  reason- 
ably well  mastered.  Its  good  results  have 
been  detailed  already  (Chapter  I),  and  no  bad 
effects  are  to  be  looked  for  except  in  long- 
distance swimming  and  racing,  or  from  too 
prolonged  immersion. 

Of  winter  sports  skating  and  coasting  are 
good  substitutes  for  the  outdoor  games  of 
warm  weather  and  acceptably  relieve  the 
monotony  of  the  gymnasium,  and  in  hockey 
on  the  ice  the  boy  gratifies  his  never-fail- 
ing longing  for  some  form  of  ball  play. 

Training,  as  the  process  is  usually  under- 
stood, is  quite  out  of  place  with  schoolboys. 
The  question  of  abstinence  from  tobacco  or 
alcohol  requires  no  consideration  for  they 
presumably  use  neither,  and  there  is  little 
change  to  be  made  in  diet  since,  on  account 
of  the  rapid  growth  that  is  taking  place  at  this 
period  of  life,  all  ordinary  forms  of  food  are 
required  by  the  system  and — given  health — 


PHYSICAL  EDUCATION  53 

are  readily  digested  and  assimilated.  This 
does  not  mean  that  any  sort  of  food  will  do. 
On  the  contrary,  it  is  essential  that  it  should 
be  of  good  quality,  simple,  sufficiently  varied, 
and  well  cooked — that  is,  so  prepared  that  it 
is  appetizing  and  that  its  nutritious  principles 
are  retained.  Neglect  of  these  fundamentals 
is  inimical  to  both  economy  and  health,  but  is 
far  too  frequent,  and  one  sees  many  homes 
and  not  a  few  boarding-schools  where  the  best 
that  the  market  affords  is  spoiled  by  a  bad 
cook,  the  food  put  upon  the  table  being  so 
tasteless  and  ill-served  that  even  a  hungry 
boy  will  turn  from  it,  wasting  more  than  he 
eats. 

Another  common  fault  is  the  use  of  the  same 
article  over  and  over  again  at  successive  meals, 
though  in  different  forms,  until  it  is  com- 
pletely consumed.  For  instance,  roast  beef 
served  hot  for  Sunday  dinner,  cold  for  supper, 
hashed  for  Monday's  breakfast,  and  if  there 
should  be,  unfortunately,  any  still  remaining  as 
a  meat  and  potato  rissole  for  the  next  mid-day 
meal.  With  fish  the  poor  boys  have  often  the 
same  experience,  the  changes  being  run  from 
hot  boiled  fish  to  fish  cakes,  and  finally  a  cold 


54  THE   ADOLESCENT   PERIOD 

fish  salad.  Diet  schedules  have  been  sent  me 
for  criticism  because  so  many  of  the  athletes 
were  going  stale,  lacked  appetite  and  had  to  be 
ordered  extras.  No  fault  could  be  found 
with  the  quality  of  the  food,  but  the  cooks 
prepared  it  badly,  otherwise  there  probably 
would  not  have  been  so  much  left  over  for 
tiresome  repetitions.  The  matrons,  also,  who 
had  charge  of  the  commissariats  were  filled 
with  false  ideas  of  economy  and  without  proper 
understanding  of  their  duties. 

Again,  vegetables  often  do  not  have  a 
sufficiently  prominent  place  on  the  school 
table,  and  there  is  a  tendency  to  over-use  the 
ready-to-eat  cereals,  to  serve  tea  and  coffee 
too  freely,  and  to  misunderstand  the  food  value 
of  milk. 

With  one  or  more  farinaceous  articles — 
potatoes,  rice,  hominy  or  macaroni — there 
should  be  at  least  two  green  vegetables  for  the 
mid-day  dinner.  This  is  easy  enough  in 
summer,  and  may  be  continued  throughout  the 
year  by  making  use  of  peas,  beans,  asparagus 
and  tomatoes  properly  canned  or  preserved  in 
glass,  and  by  freely  using  the  winter  vegetables 
— turnips,  carrots,  celery  and  cabbage — which 


PHYSICAL   EDUCATION  55 

are  exceedingly  wholesome  and  nutritious. 
None  of  this  class  of  foods  should  be  fried 
or  prepared  with  rich  sauces,  but  should  be 
simply  boiled  and  served  plain  or  seasoned 
with  a  little  good  butter  and  salt,  or — in 
the  case  of  potatoes — baked  and  for  variety 
mashed  or  creamed. 

The  ready-to-eat  cereals  are  very  analogous 
to  toasted  bread,  having  been  so  heated  in 
their  manufacture  that  a  great  part  of  their 
nutritious  constituents  has  been  converted 
into  charcoal,  and  while  they  taste  very  good 
have  little  food  value.  The  best  breakfast 
foods  are  ordinary  coarse  oat-meal,  cracked 
wheat,  corn-meal  and  hominy  grits,  that 
require  soaking  over  night  and  slow  boiling 
for  two  or  three  hours  in  the  morning.  By 
this  process  all  the  gluten  of  the  grain  is 
retained,  uninjured  by  the  moist  heat  that 
dextrinizes  the  starch,  and  the  resulting  soft 
porridge  eaten  with  cream  or  milk  and  slightly 
salted  or  with  a  little  sugar  is  highly  nourishing. 
With  the  four  cereals  mentioned  it  is  easy  to 
secure  enough  variety. 

The  need  for  tea  and  coffee  in  boyhood  is 
about  as  small  as  for  wine  or  tobacco.     For 


56  THE  ADOLESCENT  PERIOD 

hot  drinks  in  the  morning  a  cup  of  cocoa  and 
milk  or  hot  milk  flavored  with  chocolate  meet 
all  demands  and  are  preferable  because  free 
from  undesirable  stimulation  of  the  nervous 
system. 

Milk  contains  albumin,  fat,  sugar  and  salts, 
and  must  be  assigned  its  proper  place  as  a 
food  and  not  a  beverage.  On  entering  the 
stomach  its  casein  is  quickly  coagulated  by  the 
gastric  juice,  and  forms  a  firm  curd  that 
separates  from  the  whey,  and  is  quite  as  solid 
and  requires  as  much  digesting  as  a  bit  of 
masticated  meat.  Milk,  therefore,  may  be 
taken  as  an  addition  to  the  lighter  meals — 
breakfast  and  supper — but  it  must  never  be 
allowed  at  dinner  lest  it  cause  repletion.  Nor 
at  any  time  should  milk  be  substituted  for 
water  to  relieve  thirst. 

As  to  meals,  breakfast  should  be  substantial; 
dinner,  at  mid-day,  the  heaviest,  and  supper 
always  light.  They  must  neither  be  hurried 
nor  should  there  be  study  or  active  play  until 
half-an-hour  has  elapsed  after  eating. 

Of  other  health  measures  the  question  of 
sleep  will  be  fully  considered  later  (Chapter 
III)  but  it  cannot  be  too  often  repeated  that 


PHYSICAL  EDUCATION  57 

each  boy  must  have  his  separate  bed  and  a 
room  to  himself.  This  may  be  accomplished 
in  boarding-schools  by  dormitories  divided 
into  cubicles,  of  which  the  number  must  not 
be  so  large  that  they  cannot  be  thoroughly 
overlooked  by  a  master  or  some  trusted 
member  of  the  highest  form.  The  dormitory 
must,  if  possible,  have  a  southwest  exposure; 
be  capable  of  ventilation  by  large  windows  and 
of  moderate  heating  in  winter.  Of  course,  the 
bed  and  bed  covering  must  be  kept  absolutely 
clean.  Boys  from  twelve  to  sixteen  require  at 
least  ten  hours  sleep  and  when  they  are  healthy 
and  lead  a  rational  life  with  study  and  outdoor 
play  properly  proportioned,  they  usually  sleep 
soundly  from  9  p.m.  to  7  or  7.30  in  the  morning, 
and  the  demands  of  study  never  warrant  any 
curtailment  of  these  hours.  If  a  boy  be  long 
in  dropping  off  to  sleep  or  waken  early,  he  is 
probably  being  overworked  mentally,  is  being 
badly  fed,  or  is  getting  insufficient  fresh  air 
and  exercise.  An  hour  for  retiring  should  be 
fixed.  A  rising  bell  may  be  rung  at  a  set 
time  before  breakfast,  though  no  boy  should 
be  forced,  if  awake  before,  to  remain  in  bed 
waiting  for  this  call,  but  be  free  to  rise  as  soon 


58  THE   ADOLESCENT   PERIOD 

as  his  sleep  is  finished  provided  he  be  quiet, 
dress  quickly  and  does  not  study  before  he  has 
taken  food. 

Provision  should  be  made  for  regular  bathing, 
and  with  younger  boys  some  attention  may  be 
necessary  to  insure  personal  cleanliness.  If  a 
bathing-tank  be  accessible  the  bath  becomes 
more  attractive  and  is  sure  to  be  more  fre- 
quently taken,  than  if  only  an  ordinary  tub 
be  at  hand.  A  tank  also  is  useful  for  teach- 
ing swimming  during  the  months  when  open 
waters  are  too  cold. 

The  temptation  to  cram  a  boy  with  book 
knowledge  and,  if  he  be  bright,  to  push  him 
on  to  more  and  more  advanced  branches  will 
be  avoided  by  the  sensible  master.  Five 
hours  of  actual  brain  work — and  these  divided 
between  study  and  recitations — are  quite  suffi- 
cient for  the  age  under  consideration.  These 
hours  must  be  distributed  throughout  the  day; 
three,  with  fifteen  minutes  rest  intervals — 
forty-five  minutes  in  all — in  the  morning;  one, 
after  mid-day  dinner  and  one  in  the  evening. 
The  fourth  hour  should  be  movable  so  that 
during  the  season  of  short  days  the  early 
afternoon  may  be  utilized  for  outdoor   exer- 


PHYSICAL   EDUCATION  59 

cise.     Saturday  afternoon  and  Sunday  should 
always  be  free. 

The  expediency  of  such  moderate  study 
combined  with  the  recreation  and  physical 
culture  of  proper  athletics  and  general  hygienic 
management  will  be  demonstrated  in  the  boy 
by  more  ready  learning,  by  better  remembrance 
of  instruction,  and  by  a  proportionate  develop- 
ment of  mind  and  body  and  by  sound  health. 
These  qualities  will  fit  him,  when  he  leaves 
school,  to  take  up  the  harder  work  of  college 
and,  later,  the  sterner  duties  of  mature  life. 

MUSCLE   CULTURE   IN   GIRLS 

In  the  consideration  of  this  question  one 
must  remember  that  girls  are  physiologically 
unlike  boys.  It  must  be  recognized,  too,  that 
strength  of  body  is  even  more  important  to 
them;  that  well-developed  muscles  act  as  a 
counterpoise  to  weak  and  irritable  nerves,  and 
that,  in  consequence,  all  schemes  of  education 
for  girls  should  devote  as  much  attention  to 
physical  as  to  mental  culture.  Further,  the 
old-fashioned  though  sensible  view  that  mother- 
hood is  the  noblest  object  in  a  woman's  life 


60  THE   ADOLESCENT   PERIOD 

must  be  accepted;  emancipation  and  higher 
education  relegated  to  a  less  prominent  posi- 
tion, and  the  idea  abandoned  that  there  is  any 
shame  in  femininity  and  its  functions.  This 
should  not  be  taken  to  imply  that  women  must 
be  subservient  or  ignorant.  Their  nervous 
and  mental  health  require  absorbing  occupa- 
tion, especially  so  if  they  do  not  marry  reason- 
ably young — before  twenty-five — and  they 
should  be  sufficiently  instructed  to  take  ad- 
vantage of  the  opportunities  for  independence 
and  self-support  to  which  they  now  rightly 
have  access.  At  the  same  time  it  is  grievously 
wrong  to  lose  a  good  wife  and  mother  in  the 
making  of  a  mediocre  competitor  in  the  ma- 
terial affairs  of  men. 

Much  that  has  been  written  about  boys  in 
regard  to  the  investigation  of  physical  condi- 
tion; the  importance  and  the  effects  of  exercise; 
the  laws  of  sleep,  feeding,  bathing,  regulation 
of  study  and  general  hygiene,  applies  equally 
to  their  sister.  It  is  a  serious  mistake,  how- 
ever, to  attempt  to  follow  the  same  lines  in  the 
athletics  of  the  two  sexes.  Their  sports  must, 
in  the  main,  be  different  and  no  one  ought  to 
think  of  really  "training"  a  school-girl. 


PHYSICAL  EDUCATION  6 1 

Contrasted  with  boys,  girls  are  neither  so  tall 
nor  so  heavy,  except  for  a  short  time  about  the 
age  of  fourteen  years;  their  bodies  are  rounder 
with  more  fat  and  less  muscle;  their  strength, 
as  measured  by  dynamometer,  is  inferior  by 
about  one-third;  their  bones  are  lighter  though 
their  pelvic  development  is  greater,  and  their 
vital  capacity  is  smaller.     There  are,  of  course, 
other   marked  anatomical  and  psychological 
differences,  but  the  distinctive  feature  of  most 
importance  is  menstruation  with  its  periodic- 
ally recurring  hemorrhage  and  systemic  dis- 
turbances.    The  appearance  of  menstruation 
at  the  proper  age  and  its  subsequent  regularity 
are  essential  to  health,  and  yet  the  function 
interferes  with  physical  and  mental  education, 
and  together  with  the  other  structural  differ- 
ences indicates   that   ordinary    exercises  and 
sports  must  be  specially  modified  if  they  are  to 
be  advantageous. 

Many  mothers  are  negligent  of  the  regimen 
that  should  be  adopted  to  secure  the  bodily 
welfare  of  their  daughters,  and  in  boarding- 
schools,  where  the  best  care  would  naturally  be 
expected,  there  is  much  mismanagement.  This 
unfortunate  condition  is  the  outcome  of  ignor- 


62  THE   ADOLESCENT  PERIOD 

ance  or  of  the  illogical  assumption  that  the 
question  of  sex  is  of  little  consequence  and  that 
after  puberty  there  is  such  a  close  general 
similarity  between  boy  and  girl  that  any 
routine  suitable  for  the  one  must  be  equally  so 
for  the  other. 

That  there  may  be  a  better  understanding  of 
the  subject  the  following  points  require  con- 
sideration. First,  and  quite  as  important  as 
any,  comparative  rest  of  mind  and  muscle 
must  be  maintained  during  pubescence,  or 
from  the  age  of  thirteen  to  fifteen,  and  even 
longer  if  this  interval  be  insufficient  for  the 
establishment  of  regularity  in  the  menstrual 
flow.  In  regard  to  the  muscular  system, 
however,  a  life  of  too  great  inertia  must  not  be 
led.  On  the  contrary,  a  girl  must  live  much 
in  the  open  air;  drive  or  motor;  walk  a  mile  or 
more  once  or  twice  daily,  and  exercise  the  arms 
and  back  in  garden  work  or  some  kindred 
occupation.  In  winter  and  when  the  weather 
forbids  going  out  she  may  practise  dancing;  play 
battledor  and  bean-bags;  take  deep-breathing 
and  movement  exercises,  and  do  the  lighter 
part  of  the  work  of  keeping  her  rooms  tidy. 

Some  time  early  in  these  years  and  before 


PHYSICAL  EDUCATION  63 

menstruation  is  too  imminent,  the  mother  or,  if 
at  boarding-school,  some  responsible  person, 
must  prepare  the  girl  for  the  coming  change, 
and  with  the  first  and  subsequent  periods  the 
same  authorities  must  order  and  see  to  it  that 
retirement  and  rest  are  absolute  while  the 
discharge  continues  (see  Chapter  V).  These 
lay-offs  cannot  be  omitted  safely  even  after 
the  function  becomes  quite  regular,  and  conse- 
quently any  form  of  exercise  must  be  subject 
to  periodical  interruptions  of  from  five  to  seven 
days  out  of  every  four  weeks,  and  the  remain- 
ing three-quarters  of  the  time,  only,  can  be 
utilized  for  muscle  culture. 

Of  the  various  methods  of  exercise,  gym- 
nastics are  less  useful  for  girls  than  for 
boys.  In  fact  a  girl's  gymnasium  should  be 
merely  a  large,  light  and  airy  exercising 
room  without  heavy  apparatus,  ball-cages 
and  rowing  machines.  There  should  be 
plenty  of  floor  space  for  marching,  deep- 
breathing  exercises,  calisthenics,  fencing, 
basket-ball  and  dancing,  with,  when  possible, 
an  annexed  squash  court  and  a  swimming 
pool.  The  gymnasium,  too,  is  the  place  for 
correcting  deformities  and  for  strengthening 


64  THE  ADOLESCENT  PERIOD 

the  feeble  girl  so  that  she  may  take  her  part  in 
the  general  class  exercises. 

As  is  the  case  with  boys,  the  outdoor  games 
and  sports  are  more  popular  with  most  girls 
than  gymnasium  work,  and,  at  the  same  time, 
are  more  developmentally  useful.  They  have 
objections,  though,  in  that  many  of  them  are 
much  too  strenuous,  while  with  others  the 
player  becomes  so  keen  and  so  interested  in  the 
contest  element  that  they  may  do  harm  unless 
duly  restrained.  Games  to  be  encouraged  are 
golf,  tennis,  basket-ball  in  the  open,  croquet 
and  bowles,  and  of  sports  swimming,  light 
boat-rowing  without  racing,  and  moderate 
cycle  riding  in  summer,  and  skating  and  coast- 
ing in  winter  are  the  best.  Walking  to  be  a 
good  exercise  must  always  have  an  object. 
Otherwise,  it  is  a  mere  monotonous  muscular 
labor  that  does  little  but  fatigue. 

In  this  connection  it  must  be  noted  that 
the  act  of  walking  is  too  often  improperly  per- 
formed. A  little  observation  will  prove  this 
and  show  the  necessity  of  making  sure  that 
every  child  uses  feet  and  legs  properly,  that 
there  is  no  lateral  bending  at  the  ankles  and 
that  the  gait  has  ease,  firmness  and  spring. 


PHYSICAL  EDUCATION  65 

Good  walking  is  largely  a  matter  of  training 
and  should  cease  to  be  exceptional  enough 
to  attract  attention. 

Every  girl  as  she  passes  into  womanhood  will 
add  much  to  her  happiness,  be  less  prone  to 
neurasthenia  and  invalidism  and  more  com- 
panionable if  she  can  play  games  well  enough 
to  take  a  hand.  Unlike  boys,  the  majority 
of  girls  do  not  take  naturally  to  active 
sports,  and  require  more  teaching.  Some 
are  so  diffident  and  so  fearful  of  being 
thought  awkward  that  they  will  not  attempt 
to  play  unless  they  be  expert,  and  others,  if 
they  have  not  begun  early  in  life,  become  dis- 
couraged by  the  exploits  of  their  companions, 
lose  patience  and  will  not  take  the  time  or 
trouble  to  practise.  For  this  reason  the  love 
of  games  should  be  encouraged  and  the  form 
of  play  taught  in  every  girls'  school.  But 
here,  more  indeed  than  in  boys'  schools, 
athletics  demand  the  close  oversight  of  a 
physician  or  instructor  who  has  the  required 
medical  knowledge  to  detect  physical  defects 
and  adapt  muscle  work  to  their  correction,  who 
knows  the  organs  susceptible  to  strain  and  is 
capable  of  measuring  the  effects  of  exercise 
s 


66  THE  ADOLESCENT   PERIOD 

and  of  deciding  when  it  must  be  modified  or 
discontinued.  In  addition,  this  director  should 
be,  in  a  sense,  a  coach  and  be  experienced 
in  games  in  order  to  teach  them  properly. 
Also  sufficiently  broad-minded  to  be  interested 
in  backward  pupils  and  devote  more  attention 
to  them  than  to  those  who  are  apt  and  learn 
readily. 


CHAPTER  III 
THE  DISORDERS  OF  ADOLESCENCE 

The  years  immediately  before  and  after 
puberty,  while  showing  a  very  low  death  rate, 
are  marked  by  much  poor  health  and  many 
disorders  depending  upon  the  physical  and 
mental  changes  incident  to  development. 
These  ailments  are  minor  when  compared 
with  the  pronounced  diseases  of  the  child  or 
adult  and  are,  consequently,  often  overlooked. 
During  this  period  the  boy  or  girl  is  subject  to 
both  the  diseases  of  childhood  and  to  those 
of  mature  life,  but  the  former — meningitis, 
the  eruptive  fevers,  bronchial  catarrh  and 
acute  disorders  of  the  stomach  and  intestines — 
occur  with  less  frequency  and  gravity,  and  the 
latter,  such  as  rheumatism  and  affections  of 
the  bones,  muscles,  nerves  and  circulatory 
system  become  more  common,  though  in  type 
they  are  simple  and  present  less  severe  symp- 
toms. Now,  too,  nutritional  processes  are 
markedly  influenced  by  climate,  occupation 
and  surroundings;  there  is  much  variation  in 

67 


68  THE   ADOLESCENT  PERIOD 

the  resisting  power  of  different  parts  of  the 
body;  many  changes  depending  upon  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  sex  functions,  and  synchronous 
disturbances  of  digestion.  An  array  of  con- 
ditions predisposing  to  various  diseases,  of 
which  the  most  usual  are  chlorosis,  anaemia, 
hysteria,  and  chorea.  At  the  onset  of  any  of 
these  there  may  be  an  arrest  of  growth, 
especially  in  weight,  at  a  time  when  it  should 
be  rapid,  and  this  occurrence  is  a  valuable 
warning  that  considerably  antidates  character- 
istic symptoms. 

Again,  at  this  age,  mental  disorders  are  apt 
to  begin  and  a  condition  is  often  noted  in  which 
there  is  a  decided  alteration  in  character  and 
behavior  that  falls  short  of  insanity  but  is  far 
from  normal  and  is  incompatible  with  the 
attainment  of  full  mentality.  Aberrations 
and  illusions,  when  present,  are  not  so  complex 
as  when  they  arise  later,  and  the  insanities  are 
more  emotional.  Further,  disorders  that  are 
trifling  during  pubescence  may  assume  serious 
features  afterward  and  the  years  of  develop- 
ment seem  to  be  the  nursery  for  many  chronic 
and  inherited  troubles.  Now  also  the  robust 
may  become  delicate  or  the  reverse. 


THE   DISORDERS   OF   ADOLESCENCE  69 

Many  of  the  minor  troubles  of  adolescents 
are  due  to  disproportionate  development.  For 
instance,  if  height  increases  very  rapidly  and 
abnormally,  "growing  pains"  are  experienced 
because  the  muscles  fail  to  keep  pace  with  the 
bones.  The  stretching  also  causes  vascular  dis- 
turbances such  as  varicose  veins  in  the  legs — a 
quite  common  condition — and  the  bones  them- 
selves may  be  curved  and  twisted.  Acromeg- 
alia— abnormal  development  of  the  bones  of 
the  face  and  extremities,  with  disease  of  the 
thyroid  gland — is  an  exaggerated  example  of 
lack  of  proportion  in  growth.  This  dispro- 
portion may  be  due,  in  part,  to  some  tissues 
appropriating  more  than  their  share  of  plastic 
material  from  the  blood,  a  condition  that  leads 
to  their  more  rapid  growth  and  produces  de- 
formities, as,  for  example,  lateral  asymmetry. 
Boys,  especially,  show  this  tendency  and  in 
them  equality  of  arms,  legs  and  shoulders  may 
be  wanting  for  a  time  to  be  later  regained, 
as  if  the  growth  of  the  two  sides  of  the  body 
alternated.  Unless,  also,  growth  energy  is 
equally  divided,  each  organ  or  tissue  receiving 
its  due  proportion,  there  is  danger  of  un- 
equal growth   and  of  some   parts   remaining 


70  THE   ADOLESCENT  PERIOD 

immature;  thus  height  may  be  far  in  excess  of 
weight  or  the  reverse,  or  the  muscles  and 
nerves  may  be  comparatively  over-  or  under- 
developed. 

Considerable  blame  for  the  ailments  of  the 
young  rests  upon  school  authorities,  who  are 
too  frequently  ignorant  or  careless  of  health  and 
are  so  bent  on  pushing  instruction  that  they 
force  into  invalidism  or  stupidity  very  many 
of  their  pupils,  only  those  who  are  with 
difficulty  made  to  work  safely  weathering 
these  years  of  trial.  The  proper  plan  is  to 
reduce  radically  school  work  at  this  age.  The 
girl  or  boy  should  get  sufficient  sleep  each  night 
and  have  a  good  appetite  and  digestion  or  be 
kept  away  from  school.  Apart  from  ex- 
cessive work,  the  mere  fact  of  attendance  in 
the  study  room  interferes  with  nutrition, 
slows  growth,  favors  neurasthenia  and  tends 
to  arrest  the  development  of  the  higher 
powers  which  should  unfold  later.  Children 
who  study  over  four  or,  at  most,  five  hours  a 
day  suffer  more  illness  than  those  who  under- 
study, and  this  is  more  noticeable  the  younger 
the  child  as  there  is  less  resisting  power. 

Sleep,  by  resting  and  re-building  worn-out 


THE   DISORDERS   OF  ADOLESCENCE  7 1 

nerve  cells  and  by  affording  an  opportunity  for 
the  removal  of  waste  material,  is  a  potent 
health  preserver.  Children  of  all  ages,  while 
attending  school  and  especially  during  puberty, 
seldom  get  enough  sleep,  and  hours  merely 
passed  in  bed  must  never  be  a  measure  of  the 
amount  of  sleep  obtained.  Young  children 
should  sleep  twelve  hours  daily,  and  the  time 
should  not  be  reduced  below  ten  hours  as 
age  advances  and  studies  begin  and  become 
harder  and  require  more  time.  This  is  par- 
ticularly essential  in  pubescent  years  and  holds 
true  until  adult  maturity,  but  the  unfortunate 
tendency  is  to  constantly  increasing  curtail- 
ment. Sleeplessness  often  occurs  as  a  morbid 
condition  and,  as  such,  reaches  its  highest  point 
at  the  age  of  twelve  in  boys  and  thirteen  in 
girls  and  can  be  controlled  by  reducing  school 
work  and  allowing  more  outdoor  freedom 
and  play. 

It  is  a  matter  of  easy  observation  that  in  the 
autumn,  when  school  begins,  children  are  more 
alert  and  robust  than  during  the  winter,  and 
that  in  the  spring,  a  month  or  two  before  the 
summer  vacation  begins,  illness  increases 
greatly  and  at  this  time  school  work  has  the 


72  THE   ADOLESCENT   PERIOD 

most  decided  influence  in  undermining  health. 
These  results  depend  partly  upon  seasonal 
conditions  and  partly  upon  the  strain  of  con- 
tinued study. 

Excluding  the  acute  diseases,  interesting 
deductions  have  been  made  in  connection  with 
chronic  conditions  such  as  anaemia,  headache, 
various  eye  troubles,  nasal  hemorrhage,  loss  of 
appetite,  nervousness,  curvature  of  the  spine 
and  so  on.  The  frequent  occurrence  of  these 
affections  and  their  rapid  increase  in  early 
adolescence  is  very  noticeable. 

More  than  thirteen  per  cent,  of  schoolboys 
have  recurring  headache  and  nearly  as  many 
are  anaemic.  From  the  eighth  to  the  tenth 
years,  illness  increases  markedly  and  the 
increment  steadily  augments  until  it  is  greatest 
from  the  twelfth  to  the  fourteenth  year  and 
then  becomes  less  and  less  up  to  eighteen  when 
there  is  again  more  ill-health.  The  most 
sickness,  therefore,  is  associated  with  the 
beginning  of  puberty,  and  when  this  function  is 
thoroughly  established  there  is  a  decided  and 
continuous  decrease.  In  regard  to  growth,  or 
gain  in  weight  and  height,  the  former  is  far 
more  favorable  to  health.     While  weight  is 


THE   DISORDERS   OF   ADOLESCENCE  73 

increasing  most  rapidly  there  is  less  proneness 
to  illness  and,  on  the  other  hand,  as  this  rate 
decreases  disease  becomes  more  prevalent, 
rising  to  a  second  maximum  about  the  twenti- 
eth year. 

Of  girls,  in  the  upper  classes  socially,  from 
fifty  to  sixty  per  cent,  are  unhealthy  to  a 
greater  or  less  degree;  of  these  thirty-six  per 
cent,  are  anaemic;  about  the  same  proportion 
have  constant  headache,  and  ten  per  cent, 
have  curvature  of  the  spine.  Illness  is  most 
common  during  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth 
years  when  puberty  begins.  It  then  lessens, 
next  remains  stationary,  to  increase  again  after 
seventeen  when  the  time  of  rapid  growth  is 
over.  If  girls  who  have  been  ill  earlier  do  not 
rebound  as  their  weight  augments,  their  condi- 
tion demands  serious  attention,  and  it  will 
often  be  found  that  their  training  is  unsuitable 
in  being  too  much  on  the  same  lines  as  their 
brothers  or  that  there  is  something  else  very 
wrong  in  their  general  management.  They 
should  be  taught  to  bear  disappointments,  to 
be  content  and  hopeful,  to  enjoy  simple  pleas- 
ures, and  encouraged  to  assume  some  of  the 
ordinary  light  domestic  duties  of  their  homes. 


74  THE   ADOLESCENT  PERIOD 

They  must  be  saved  from  great  fatigue  or 
exposure,  over-excitement  or  over-study,  and 
allowed  only  plain,  unstimulating  food. 

Mortality  statistics  in  the  young  curiously 
prove  that  the  fewest  deaths  occur  between  the 
ages  of  ten  and  fifteen  years  the  interval  in 
which  gain  in  height  and  weight  is  very  rapid — 
the  years  of  minimum  death  rate  being  twelve 
for  girls  and  thirteen  for  boys.  Hence,  when 
children  are  most  liable  to  ill-health  there  is  the 
least  mortality,  because  throughout  this  nas- 
cent period  there  is  great  nutritional  activity 
and  vital  resistance. 

The  disorders  commonly  occurring  to  ado- 
lescents are  the  following: 

Disturbances  of  Digestion. — These  are  very 
frequent  in  early  adolescence  because  at 
this  period  of  life  there  are  many  systemic 
changes  requiring  nutritional  readjustment 
and  the  digestive  organs  are  still  im- 
perfectly matured.  At  the  same  time  the 
need  for  functional  activity  is  urgent  since 
growth  is  very  rapid  and  requires  the  perfect 
digestion  of  not  only  a  greater  quantity  but  of 
more  complex  foods  to  meet  the  demands  of 
the  different  organs  for  special  elements,  such 


THE   DISORDERS   OF  ADOLESCENCE  75 

as  lime  for  the  bones,  iron  for  the  blood,  phos- 
phorus for  the  brain,  protein  for  the  muscles, 
and  fat  for  heat  maintenance. 

About  puberty  a  normal  appetite,  or  a  de- 
sire for  the  sort  of  food  necessary  to  meet  the 
tissue  needs,  is  often  absent  or  perverted  and 
a  tendency  arises  to  experiment  with  new 
dishes  and  to  eat  strange  and  sometimes  of- 
fensive things.  Boys  challenge,  or  even  force, 
their  fellows  to  taste  or  swallow  foul  and  hurt- 
ful substances,  boast  of  what  they  eat  and  in- 
stitute eating  and  drinking  contests,  the  latter 
often  being  the  initial  step  in  forming  the  habit 
of  inebriety.  Girls  affect  daintiness,  grow 
fastidious  and  very  particular  as  to  candy  or 
cake  or  sweet  drinks.  Very  generally  the  ap- 
petite becomes  irregular,  with  abstinence  and 
gluttony  alternating,  or  there  may  be  strange 
longings,  and  repulsion  for  some  and  extreme 
desire  for  other  dishes. 

These  unnatural  and  perverted  tastes  may 
readily  pass  into  fixed  bad  eating  habits,  lead- 
ing to  many  of  the  breakdowns  of  students 
and  causing  irritability,  anaemia,  malnutrition 
and  a  condition  of  weakness  in  which  marked 
fatigue  follows  such  trifling  exertion  that  proper 


76  THE   ADOLESCENT  PERIOD 

exercise  is  precluded,  and  in  which  may  arise 
a  craving  for  stimulants  often  ending  in  drunk- 
enness. It  is  essential,  therefore,  to  establish 
an  appropriate  diet  during  puberty.  This  is 
difficult,  but  quite  possible  if  the  faults  of 
appetite  are  early  recognized  and  personal  care 
and  authority  exerted;  on  the  other  hand,  if 
correction  be  neglected  until  after  sex  develop- 
ment is  completed  little  improvement  can  be 
expected. 

At  this  age,  too,  the  wisdom  teeth  are  form- 
ing and  the  lower  jaw  and  the  muscles  of  masti- 
cation are  growing,  features  which  excite  the 
automatism  of  biting  sticks  or  finger-nails  and 
encourage  the  habit  of  chewing  gum,  all  help- 
ing to  impair  digestion  through  over-stimu- 
lation and  waste  of  the  salivary  secretions. 

Other  digestive  disorders  of  adolescents  are 
flatulence,  various  forms  of  gastric  and  intes- 
tinal indigestion  and  constipation. 

Cardiac  Disturbances. — About  the  age  of 
puberty  the  heart  normally  nearly  doubles  in 
size  and  moderate  dilatation  is  apt  to  occur, 
with  shortness  of  breath,  palpitation,  feeble 
pulse  and  general  languor.  This  condition, 
however,  is  usually  of  short  duration,  as  com- 


THE   DISORDERS   OF  ADOLESCENCE  77 

pensation    quickly    takes    place    as    growth 
progresses. 

In  girls,  nervous  palpitation — mild  or  severe 
— often  precedes,  by  a  few  weeks  or  longer,  the 
initial  menstrual  flow,  but  as  a  rule  disappears 
when  this  function  is  well  established.  These 
palpitations  are  accompanied  by  loss  of  appe- 
tite, flatulence  and  other  digestive  disturbances 
and  by  nervous  irritability,  physical  slug- 
gishness and  wakefulness.  This  condition, 
also,  is  very  common  in  over- worked  students 
between  the  ages  of  fifteen  and  eighteen.  Ir- 
regular or  rapid  and  feeble  cardiac  action 
attend  marked  delay  or  continued  irregularity 
of  the  menses  and  depend  upon  the  blood 
changes  occurring  in  the  associated  ansemia 
and  chlorosis. 

Hypertrophy  of  the  left  ventricle  with 
shortness  of  breath  and  a  sensation  of  fulness 
in  the  cardiac  region  is  frequent  in  girls  of 
the  leisure  class  who,  healthy  as  to  blood  and 
nerves,  have  grown  inordinately  just  before 
puberty  and  are  very  tall  and  thin,  the  heart 
having  to  work  against  increased  resistance. 
This  condition  is  favored  by  wearing  clothing 


78  THE   ADOLESCENT   PERIOD 

that  fits  too  closely  about  the  abdomen  and 
lower  part  of  the  chest. 

Irregularities  and  alterations  of  cardiac 
rhythm  are  quite  frequent  in  children.  They 
are  not  serious  symptoms,  are  generally  trans- 
ient, most  often  noted  in  anaemic  and  rapidly 
growing  pubescents,  and  are  due  to  relative 
narrowness  of  the  arteries  directly  increasing 
tension  and  sometimes  leading  to  hyper- 
trophy of  the  heart  muscle.  Spontaneous 
irregularities  are  more  common  in  boys;  the 
pulse  may  be  either  too  slow  or  too  fast  for 
a  time  at  puberty,  and  this  condition  may  be 
constant  in  sleep,  or  a  fright,  an  attack  of 
indigestion  or  the  shock  of  a  cold  bath  may 
cause  it.  Sometimes  a  deep  inspiration  is 
attended  by  the  loss  of  a  beat. 

During  sexual  development  many  become 
morbidly  anxious  about  their  hearts,  frequently 
feel  the  radial  pulsations,  and  count  them,  and 
get  into  a  state  of  nervous  dread  that  at  some 
moment  they  may  die  from  cardiac  arrest. 
At  night,  when  the  reclining  position  normally 
reduces  the  frequency  and  force  of  the  pulse 
beats,  this  fear  may  reach  a  panic  pitch  until 
some  restless  movement,  as  springing  up  in 


THE   DISORDERS   OF   ADOLESCENCE  79 

bed,  starts  the  heart  into  forcible  action  again. 
These  fears  are  generally  trifling  and  temporary 
and  are  nearly  always  outgrown  in  time,  but 
when  marked,  the  subjects  often  consult  medi- 
cal books;  invent  excuses  for  pulse  comparison 
with  companions;  imagine  cardiac  pains  and 
sensations  of  obstructed  circulation;  avoid  ex- 
ertion so  far  as  possible;  adopt  some  special 
regimen  of  their  own,  and,  being  seemingly 
ashamed  to  proclaim  their  symptoms,  suffer 
silently  until  the  phase  naturally  comes  to  an 
end. 

Spinal  Curvature. — Numerous  accurate  meas- 
urements have  demonstrated  that  a  want  of 
body  symmetry  is  almost  universal  in  the 
young,  and  slight  differences  must  not  be 
taken  too  seriously.  The  custom  of  many 
schools  is  to  have  each  pupil  measured  on 
entrance  and  at  stated  intervals  afterward, 
for  the  purpose  of  prescribing  exercises  and 
noting  improvements,  and  enough  can  hardly 
be  said  in  favor  of  this  plan;  still,  parents  are 
often  greatly  alarmed  if  these  records  show  a 
little  bending  of  the  spine  or  a  trifling  dif- 
ference in  the  length  of  the  legs,  and  physical 
directors  err  in  making  their  reports  too  bald 


80  THE   ADOLESCENT   PERIOD 

and  in  failing  to  state  the  naturalness  of  the 
variations  and  the  readiness  with  which  most 
of  them  may  be  righted  by  proper  physical 
culture.  However,  morbid  curvature  of  the 
spine  occurs  quite  often  between  the  ages  of 
seven  and  fourteen,  and  especially  in  the 
twelfth  and  thirteenth  years.  The  bending 
may  be  due  to  ligamentous  or  muscular 
relaxation,  to  asymmetrical  muscular  develop- 
ment and  contraction,  or  to  softening  and  dis- 
ease of  the  vertebrae  themselves.  It  is  fre- 
quently brought  about  by  prolonged  sitting 
in  a  cramped  position  with  the  trunk  resting 
more  upon  one  buttock  than  the  other;  by 
undue  strain  from  the  use  of  high  pillows; 
constant  sleeping  in  one  position;  side-saddle 
riding;  a  stooping  posture  in  bicycling;  care- 
less corset  lacing,  and  occupations  requiring 
cramped  positions  or  the  constant  use  of  the 
same  hand  or  arm.  Bad  inheritance,  sur- 
roundings or  habits  are  predisposing  influences, 
and  the  rapid  growth  of  pubescents,  associ- 
ated with  these  unfavorable  conditions,  account 
for  the  increase  of  the  deformity  at  this  age. 

The  onset  is  very  slow  and  without  symp- 
toms other  than  some  slightly  abnormal  and 


THE   DISORDERS   OF   ADOLESCENCE  8 1 

often  overlooked  posture,  which  is  another 
reason  for  the  careful  and  repeated  measure- 
ments above  referred  to.  But  as  the  disease 
progresses  it  can  be  seen  that  the  same  leg  is 
always  crossed  over  its  fellow;  the  weight  of  the 
body  constantly  supported  upon  the  right  or 
left  foot,  instead  of  on  both  or  alternately;  the 
head  uniformly  inclined  to  the  same  side;  one 
elbow  always  leaned  upon  and  identical  bad 
positions  taken  when  reading  or  writing  at  a 
desk.  Right  dorsal  and  left  lumbar  are  the 
usual  forms  of  curvature,  and  the  consequent 
changes  in  the  shape  of  the  chest  and  abdomen 
lead  to  disturbances  of  circulation,  respiration 
and  digestion.  In  the  management  of  these 
deformities  it  must  be  remembered  that, 
except  in  very  marked  instances,  corsets  or 
other  mechanical  supports  are  better  avoided, 
as  these  restrict  the  free  movements  necessary 
to  preserve  muscle  tone.  Better  results  are 
obtained  by  exercises  adapted  to  strengthen 
weak  muscles. 

Abnormalities  of  Speech. — Stuttering  is  a 
spasmodic  affection  of  the  muscles  involved  in 
speech,  in  which  the  act  of  expelling  the 
breath,  the  vowel  production  of  the  vocal  cords 

6 


82  THE  ADOLESCENT   PERIOD 

and  the  consonant  forming  of  the  lips  and 
tongue  are  not  co-ordinated;  in  other  words, 
it  is  a  form  of  chorea  of  the  muscles  of  articula- 
tion combined  with  faulty  breathing.  Stam- 
mering, an  allied  condition,  is  a  defect  in  pro- 
nunciation, and  its  features  are  much  less 
severe  and  explosive.  These  anomalies  occur 
most  frequently  between  the  ages  of  seven  and 
sixteen  years,  appearing  a  little  later  in  boys 
than  in  girls,  and  are  imitatively  contagious 
in  a  high  degree.  They  may  be  persistent  or 
intermittent,  are  produced  by  long-continued 
and  monotonous  mental  effort  at  school,  by 
physical  over-work  in  trades,  by  bad  training 
in  speaking  and  reading  aloud  and  are  much 
increased  by  diffidence.  Both  stuttering  and 
stammering  can  often  be  prevented  or  over- 
come by  careful  and  early  speech  training  and 
special  breathing  exercises. 

Ocular  Disorders. — About  the  time  of  pu- 
berty weakness  of  sight  with  evidences  of  eye- 
strain and  even  retino-choroiditis  and  hemor- 
rhage are  observed,  particularly  in  girls.  The 
latter  condition  is  vicarious  and  soon  disap- 
pears after  the  menstrual  flow  is  regularly 
established.    At  this  age,  also,  near-sightedness 


THE   DISORDERS   OF  ADOLESCENCE  83 

begins  to  be  troublesome  and  requires  the  aid 
of  glasses. 

Chlorosis  increases  steadily  from  the  eighth 
to  the  twentieth  years,  with  the  exception  of 
the  fifteenth  which  is  the  most  immune  of  the 
interval.  Some  observers  have  detected  a 
slight  excess  of  iron  in  the  blood  in  early 
puberty,  which  may  be  a  natural  effort  to 
prevent  this  disease. 

Sleep  Anomalies. — The  hours  given  to  sleep- 
ing not  only  become  shorter  near  puberty  but 
sleep  becomes  restless  for  a  while,  later  to  grow 
either  distinctly  better  or  much  worse.  At  this 
time,  also,  sleep  is  apt  to  be  irregular,  there  be- 
ing periods  of  days  or  weeks  in  which  it  is  sound 
and  prolonged,  followed  by  intervals  of  wake- 
fulness and  disinclination  to  sleep  or  even  in- 
tense dislike  to  the  idea  of  going  to  bed. 
Normal  adolescents — boys  pre-eminently — are 
often  seized  by  a  desire  to  wander  romantically 
about  in  the  open  at  night  in  search  of  adven- 
ture, a  tendency  particularly  marked  when  the 
moon  shines  and  one  that  is  probably  a  racial 
reversion  to  the  predatory  and  amatory  pur- 
suits of  primitive  man.  This  youthful  im- 
pulse is  not  always  innocent,  some  using  night 


84  THE   ADOLESCENT   PERIOD 

to  cover  excesses  and  as  an  excuse  for  evil 
deeds,  as  if  darkness  removed  the  sense  of 
responsibility  dominating  their  actions  in  the 
daylight;  but  when  trained  and  controlled  it 
may  be  converted  into  an  ability  to  do  good 
mental  work  in  the  evening  hours.  Dreams 
now  become  more  emotional;  have  a  greater 
effect  upon  the  trend  of  waking  thoughts;  are 
often  so  vivid  that  the  night's  sleep  instead  of 
refreshing  is  followed  by  much  weariness,  and 
in  them  the  sexual  organs  frequently  show  their 
psychic  influence  as  well  as  the  first  evidences 
of  their  full  functional  activity.  Sleep-walk- 
ing may  make  its  initial  appearance  at  this 
time,  and  reveries,  day  dreaming  and  trance 
states — midway  between  waking  and  sleep- 
ing— are  often  observed. 

Nervous  and  Mental  Disturbances. — Es- 
tablishment of  the  sex  functions  has  a  powerful 
influence  upon  the  nervous  system  generally, 
and  psychoses  and  neuroses  are  more  common 
in  early  adolescence  than  at  any  other  time  of 
life;  then,  too,  morbid  impulses  are  difficult 
to  control. 

The  following  are  some  of  the  conditions 
worthy  of  study: 


THE   DISORDERS   OF  ADOLESCENCE  85 

Epilepsy. — This,  in  the  idiopathic  form,  is  an 
affection  in  which  there  is  a  fixed  tendency  to 
spasmodic  muscular  movements  of  a  special 
type,  attended  by  unconsciousness,  which  recur 
until  a  convulsive  habit  is  established.  The 
period  of  greatest  liability  to  the  appearance 
of  epilepsy  is  during  the  development  of 
puberty,  a  large  proportion  of  cases  occurring 
between  the  ages  of  ten  and  twenty  years;  no 
time  of  life  is  exempt,  though  the  probability 
of  its  onset  lessens  after  the  latter  age.  More 
girls  are  affected  than  boys  before  the  tenth 
year.  After  twenty,  nearly  four  times  as  many 
males  as  females  become  victims. 

Direct  heredity  is  a  common  factor  in  this 
disease,  and  all  inherited  nervous  disorders  pre- 
dispose to  it.  Some  cases  may  be  traced  back 
to  ordinary  convulsions  taking  place  in  infancy 
and  even  in  children  up  to  two  or  three  years  old, 
these  often  mark  the  beginning  of  true  epilepsy. 
A  paroxysm  may  be  brought  on  by  fright,  over- 
excitement,  exposure  to  the  sun  and  blows  or 
falls  on  the  head;  one  of  the  most  active  ex- 
citing factors  is  putrefactive  fermentation  of 
the  intestinal  contents,  combined  with  intes- 
tinal indigestion  and  chronic  constipation. 


86  THE   ADOLESCENT   PERIOD 

In  gravity,  the  paroxysms  vary  greatly  from 
a  violent  general  muscular  spasm,  with  uncon- 
sciousness, to  the  mild  petit  mat,  in  which  there 
is  merely  a  trifling  shudder  or  a  momentary 
lapse  of  consciousness. 

The  marked  seizures  may  take  place  without 
warning,  but  they  are  usually  preceded  by  pre- 
monitory symptoms — the  epileptic  aura.  The 
aura  may  be  motor,  as  a  local  spasm  of  the 
hand  or  face;  or  sensory,  as  numbness  or  tin- 
gling or  other  abnormal  feeling  in  one  extrem- 
ity, whfch  mounts  slowly  upward  until  it  reaches 
the  head  when  unconsciousness  occurs.  Some- 
times there  is  pain  in  the  region  of  the  stomach; 
nausea;  palpitation  or  giddiness';  flashes  of  light 
may  appear  before  the' eyes,  and  there  may  be 
other  subjective  sensations  of  touch,  taste, 
smell  and  hearing.  The  fit  begins  with  uni- 
versal and  continued  muscular  contractions, 
and  uttering  a  hoarse  cry,  the  sufferer  falls 
to  the  ground  unconscious.  After  a  moment 
or  two,  rigidity  passes  into  alternating  mus- 
cular contractions  and  relaxations  which 
gradually  subside  after  lasting  from  several 
minutes  to  half  an  hour.  Then  consciousness 
may  quickly  return,   though  the  patient  is 


THE   DISORDERS   OF   ADOLESCENCE  87 

somewhat  dazed  at  first;  but  more  frequently 
the  senses  are  not  regained  until  after  a  deep 
sleep  of  an  hour  or  more. 

Petit  mat  shows  many  very  diverse  features 
which  can  only  be  classed  as  epileptic  by  their 
periodicity.  Characteristic  loss  of  conscious- 
ness may  be  absent  entirely  and  at  most  is 
only  momentary.  The  subject  does  not  fall, 
but  the  head  may  drop  a  little;  there  may  be  a 
brief,  staring  fixation  of  the  eye-balls  and 
a  shivering  of  the  body,  and  nothing  more. 
An  aura  may  or  may  not  precede  the  trifling 
seizure.  Sometimes  after  an  attack  there  may 
be  mental  confusion  and  various  automatic 
actions. 

Epilepsy  has  a  decided  effect  upon  mentality, 
all  degrees  of  deterioration  being  encountered 
ranging  from  dulness,  apathy,  retarded  de- 
velopment and  uncontrollable  temper  to  mel- 
ancholia, idiocy  and  mania.  The  earlier  in 
life  the  disease  appears  the  more  marked  is 
the  mental  disturbance.  This  is  due  to  the 
greater  susceptibility  of  the  actively  growing 
brain  tissue  to  the  evil  influences  of  the  sudden 
and  violent  discharge  of  nerve  force  in  the 
paroxysms. 


88  THE  ADOLESCENT   PERIOD 

The  outlook  so  far  as  checking  the  recur- 
rence of  the  paroxysms  is  concerned  is  very 
unfavorable.  Somewhat  more  encouraging, 
perhaps,  in  the  cases  which  begin  under  ten  years 
of  age  than  in  those  between  ten  and  twenty, 
and  in  these  than  in  instances  of  still  later 
origin.  The  disease  in  its  ordinary  form  does 
not  directly  endanger  life,  death  when  it  does 
occur  being  usually  due  to  some  accident, 
such  as  an  injury  to  the  head  in  the  fall,  or  by 
drowning  if  a  fit  occurs  while  bathing. 

Hysteria  is  a  condition  of  brain  weariness 
marked  by  poor  general  nutrition,  local  excess 
of  sensibility  or  loss  of  sensibility,  anomalous 
motor  features  and  psychic  abnormalities, 
such  as  perverse  behavior,  lack  of  thought 
composition,  limited  consciousness  and  divided 
personality. 

In  young  children,  though  a  rare  affection, 
it  appears  in  boys  and  girls  equally,  but  after 
the  tenth  year  becomes  much  more  common 
and  the  proportion  of  female  sufferers  increases. 
The  onset  of  puberty  has  a  powerful  influence 
in  producing  hysteria.  First,  on  account  of 
the  physical  and  psychical  changes  taking 
place  in  the  organism,   and   secondly,  a  few 


THE   DISORDERS   OF   ADOLESCENCE  89 

years  later,  because  important  problems  re- 
lating to  a  choice  of  occupation,  the  necessity 
of  earning  a  living,  the  questions  of  love  and 
religion  arise  and  must  be  decided.  These 
matters  often  completely  occupy  the  intellect, 
still  naturally  weak,  leaving  none  for  other 
subjects.  This  thought  deficiency,  in  brains 
nervously  predisposed,  may  gradually  be  in- 
tensified and  specialized  until  it  terminates  in 
hysterical  manifestations.  Heredity  is  another 
frequent  etiological  factor,  the  disorder  occur- 
ring in  those  who  inherit  a  nervous  con- 
stitution or  whose  parents  have  been  insane, 
hysterical  or  addicted  to  drink.  Further  causes 
are  anaemia,  chlorosis  or  other  nutritional 
troubles;  excessive  work  in  school;  the  acute  in- 
fectious diseases;  any  condition  leading  to 
nervous  irritability  and  impairment  of  the 
general  health,  and  it  may  be  excited  by  an 
injury,  a  fright  or  by  imitation. 

The  manifestations  of  this  disorder  are  very 
numerous  and  diverse,  and  it  may  simulate 
almost  any  organic  disease  of  the  brain,  lungs, 
digestive  organs,  bones  or  joints.  However, 
the  ordinary  symptoms  may  be  grouped  as 
follows : 


90  THE   ADOLESCENT   PERIOD 

Psychic  Symptoms. — These  include  periods 
of  depression  of  variable  duration;  alteration 
in  disposition,  in  which  there  may  be  indiffer- 
ence, capriciousness  or  extreme  irritability 
with  paroxysms  of  causeless  laughing  or  crying; 
great  irascibility;  hallucinations;  disturbed 
sleep  with  complex  and  romantic  dreams  or 
night  terrors  and  somnambulism;  an  inclina- 
tion to  continued  deception  about  very  trifling 
matters  and  a  tendency  to  imitate  the  symp- 
toms of  diseases  read  about  or  seen  in  others. 

Sensory  symptoms  are  local  or  general 
excess  or  loss  of  sensibility,  the  former  espe- 
cially; headache  with,  at  times,  tenderness  of 
the  scalp;  neuralgia;  severe  pain  in  the  region 
of  the  stomach,  occasionally  attended  by 
vomiting,  and,  sometimes,  temporary  assumed 
blindness  and  deafness. 

Joint  symptoms,  really  sensory  in  character, 
are  frequent  between  the  ages  of  ten  and  four- 
teen and  are  very  perplexing.  They  are 
usually  referred  to  the  hip  and  next  often  to 
knee,  ankle  and  spine,  and  all  forms  of  articular 
disease  may  be  simulated.  There  is  fre- 
quently acute  pain  which  is  increased  by 
movement  or  any  attempt  to  overcome  an 


THE   DISORDERS   OF  ADOLESCENCE  9 1 

associated  deformity;  excessive  sensibility  of 
the  affected  limb  or  whole  body;  tenderness 
of  dorsal  spine  on  pressure;  slight  or  marked 
deformity  that  may  continue  for  a  long  time 
and  is  always  more  decided  during  examination, 
and  moderate  atrophy  of  the  neighboring 
muscles  due  to  want  of  use. 

Motor  and  Convulsive  Symptoms. — Mild 
cases  present  many  varieties  of  maintained  or 
interrupted  muscle  contractions.  There  may 
be  local  spasm — either  constant  or  intermittent 
— of  eyes,  face  and  lips;  wry-neck  from  con- 
traction of  the  cervical  muscles;  disturbed 
breathing  when  respiratory  muscles  become 
tense;  hiccough  from  involvement  of  the 
diaphragm;  loss  of  voice  from  laryngeal  con- 
stricture;  difficulty  in  swallowing  and  regurgi- 
tation from  spasm  of  the  oesophagus,  and 
eructations  and  obstinate  vomiting — sometimes 
of  blood — when  the  stomach  and  abdominal 
muscles  are  affected.  Hysterical  cough  is 
another  paroxysmal  feature,  and  it  may  be  so 
constant  and  severe  that  it  suggests  grave 
pulmonary  trouble,  especially  when,  as  oc- 
casionally happens,  it  is  attended  by  bloody 
expectoration. 


92  THE   ADOLESCENT   PERIOD 

The  more  severe  cases  may  be  marked  by 
choreic  movements  or  by  attacks  of  hystero- 
epilepsy.  The  latter  is  less  common  than  in 
adults  and  the  character  of  the  convulsive 
movements  differs  widely.  There  are  localized 
sensitive  areas  upon  which  pressure  produces 
pain,  nervous  manifestations  and  occasionally 
convulsions;  the  breathing  is  rapid  and  irregu- 
lar; arching  back  {opisthotonos)  of  the  body  is 
often  noted;  consciousness  is  not  completely 
lost,  but  the  patient  is  dazed  and  has  hallucina- 
tions. Hysterical  paralysis  is  another  possible 
occurrence,  and  though  it  is  not  usual  in  the 
young,  it  has  been  observed  as  early  as  the 
middle  of  the  second  year. 

Other  symptoms  are  absent  or  capricious 
appetite,  poor  digestion  and  assimilation;  pro- 
fuse urination  or  incontinence;  alterations  in 
the  secretion  of  the  salivary  glands  and  of 
perspiration;  disturbed  sleep;  anaemia  and 
general  malnutrition. 

In  the  management  of  this  disease,  pre- 
ventive measures  are  most  important.  When 
a  child  inherits  an  hysterical  tendency  or  is 
nervous,  special  attention  must  be  given  to 
developing   the   muscles,    while   the   nervous 


THE  DISORDERS   OF  ADOLESCENCE  93 

system,  on  the  contrary,  is  kept  as  passive 
as  possible.  Such  a  child  should  lead  an  out- 
door life,  in  the  country  preferably;  be  sent  to 
bed  early  each  evening  to  secure  plenty  of 
sleep;  play  freely  and  in  this  way  exercise; 
eat  regularly  and  plainly,  avoiding  tea,  coffee 
and  all  stimulants;  live  simply  without  the 
stress  of  exciting  reading  or  of  theatres  or 
children's  parties  with  their  late  hours,  and 
educational  work  must  be  restricted  to  a  few 
hours  each  day  and  very  carefully  guarded 
from  over-forcing. 

When  the  disease  develops  it  is  essential  to 
remove  the  subject  from  the  influence  of  an 
hysterical  parent,  that  the  danger  of  imitation 
may  be  avoided,  and  remedial  measures  are 
most  successful  when  applied  outside  of  the 
home  and  under  the  care  of  a  trained  nurse 
who  is  trustworthy  but  not  over-sympathetic. 
In  other  respects  the  treatment  should  be 
placed  in  medical  hands. 

In  addition  to  epilepsy  and  hysteria  there 
are  other  nervous  conditions — neuroses — all 
showing  a  close  dependence  upon  the  develop- 
ment of  the  reproductive  organs,  seeming  to 
be   much   influenced   by   the   process   of   es- 


94  THE   ADOLESCENT   PERIOD 

tablishing  a  mean  between  over-activity  and 
arrest  of  the  sexual  functions.  When  the 
proper  balance  is  not  struck,  many  abnormal 
features  appear  and  there  are  strange  psychic 
transformations.  For  instance,  mental  suf- 
fering, loathing  or  anxiety  are  expressed,  in 
turn,  by  localized  neuralgia,  nausea  or  cramp- 
like muscular  contractions,  and  so  with  nu- 
merous other  abnormal  symptoms  common 
in  this  unstable  period  of  life.  These  trans- 
ferences follow  sudden  and  violent  impres- 
sions, especially  when  they  affect  females  and 
have  to  do  with  the  sexual  realm.  They  often 
take  the  form  of  hysterical  outbursts  associated 
with  violent  emotional  and  motor  disturbances, 
and  are  incited  by  sub-conscious  influences 
resulting  from  suppressed  recollections  of  some 
previous  act  against  which  natural  delicacy 
protests  and  about  which  there  is  nerve- 
wearing  remorse.  Such  cases  require  full 
discussion  of  the  distressing  experience  in- 
stead of  its  repression.  This  need  has  sug- 
gested the  psycho-analytic  method  of  treat- 
ment in  which  the  patient  is  questioned  re- 
garding and  encouraged  to  freely  talk  of  the 
origin  of  the  disturbance,  or,  if  the  memory  be 


THE   DISORDERS   OF   ADOLESCENCE  95 

at  fault,  hypnotism  is  employed  until  its  whole 
course  can  be  lived  over  again  and  told  or 
acted  in  all  its  details,  the  result  being  relief 
of  tension  and  restoration  of  balance  and 
tranquillity.  Without  this  skilfully  induced 
reaction  of  confession,  the  cause — usually 
some  sexual  shock — is  almost  uniformly  con- 
cealed, with  the  effect  of  keeping  up  and 
magnifying  psychic  disturbances.  The  good 
results  of  this  procedure  also  point  to  the 
importance  of  guarding  pubescents  from  all 
nervous  shocks,  and  to  the  necessity  for  the 
young  of  wise  advisers,  sufficiently  human  and 
sympathetic  to  encourage  complete  confidence 
and  confession. 

Before  taking  up  the  detailed  study  of  the 
nervous  disturbances  referred  to,  it  must  be 
understood  that  there  are  certain  mental 
processes  which  are  usually  and  normally 
established  about  puberty.  These  are  reverie 
and  abstraction;  imagination;  self-consciousness 
and  self-examination,  the  reverse  of  childish 
absorption  in  external  objects;  assertion  of 
individuality;  imitation;  tendency  to  silliness 
to  divert  criticism  and  to  be  dramatic;  bashful- 
ness  and  a  desire  for  solitude.     Such  traits 


96  THE   ADOLESCENT   PERIOD 

may  be  greatly  exaggerated  or  modified 
and  may  pass  beyond  control  and  so  become 
symptomatic  in  the  disorders  to  be  next 
considered. 

Over-conscientiousness  and  Self-observa- 
tion.— This  phase  of  abnormal  mentality  occurs 
most  often  about  the  age  of  twelve  or  thirteen, 
and  the  subjects,  previously  normal,  become 
peevish  and  given  to  moods;  are  concerned 
about  their  incentives  to  actions,  dreading  that 
they  may  be  bad;  make  uncertain  statements 
to  avoid  the  risk  of  falsehood;  are  troubled 
about  giving  deceitful  or  unintended  impres- 
sions; are  so  careful  in  conversation  that  they 
distort  details;  fear  that  their  childish  thoughts 
are  sinful  and  their  acts  wicked,  and  sometimes 
worry  as  to  whether  they  have  not  even 
injured  a  passerby  they  have  brushed  against 
in  the  street,  or  caused  a  conflagration  with  a 
match  they  have  struck,  blown  out  and  thrown 
away.  If  there  be  much  sexual  unbalance 
these  morbid  obsessions  are  accentuated  or 
changed;  there  may  be  a  passion  for  destroying 
things,  or  a  desire  to  create  astonishment  by 
mischievous  acts;  skilful  distortion  of  truth 
to  cover  misconduct;  absence  of  natural  afiec- 


THE  DISORDERS   OF   ADOLESCENCE  97 

tion  and  of  a  sense  of  right  and  wrong.  These 
cases — even  the  worst — often  become  quite 
normal  after  the  sex  functions  are  regularly 
established. 

Anxiety  neuroses — exaggerations  of  the 
above  conditions — are  related  to  neurasthenia 
and  hysteria  and  are  characterized  by  extreme 
apprehension  of  some  approaching  calamity. 
The  patient — usually  a  female — suffers  from  a 
more  or  less  constant  anticipation  of  loss  of 
self-control,  illness  or  even  death;  fears  the 
attempt  at,  or  the  results  of,  any  action;  has 
the  sex  organs  constantly  in  mind,  and  dreads 
impotence.  Physically  there  are  alternating 
pallor  and  flushing;  sudden  perspiration;  pal- 
pitation of  the  heart ;  abdominal  discomfort ;  ver- 
tigo, muscular  twitching  and  localized  numb- 
ness, tingling  or  other  sensory  manifestations. 
This  state,  besides  being  due  to  general  emo- 
tional disturbances,  is  also  attributable  to 
imperfect  sexual  hygiene,  the  fault  lying  in  the 
direction  of  over-restraint  in  the  exercise  of  this 
function  and  celibacy.  In  this  way  it  differs 
from  neurasthenia,  which  is  a  product  of 
excess,  and  both  disorders  may  be  largely 
prevented  by  a  normal  sexual  life.  The  various 
7 


98  THE   ADOLESCENT   PERIOD 

phobias  or  fears  are  further  described  on 
page  101. 

Educational  Incapacity. — Many  children, 
though  mentally  healthy  before,  begin  to  de- 
teriorate at  puberty  and  become  difficult  to 
teach.  Their  power  of  mental  attention  and 
reception  decreases;  they  fail  in  lessons  and, 
becoming  butts  for  their  companions,  have  their 
dispositions  ruined.  Removal  from  school  and 
careful  management  for  several  years  alone 
offer  any  prospect  of  restoration. 

Confirmed  invalidism  is  a  peculiar  neurosis 
encountered  in  adolescent  girls  whose  repro- 
ductive organs  are  undeveloped  or  impaired 
in  function.  These  unfortunates  imagine  that 
all  their  organs  are  diseased  and  they  drift 
from  specialist  to  specialist  for  operation  or 
treatment.  They  greatly  try  their  physicians 
and  friends  by  their  detailed  description  of 
symptoms  and  their  selfishness,  their  accusa- 
tions of  neglect  and  unfair  treatment,  their 
display  of  resignation  at  being  misunderstood, 
and,  above  all,  by  their  constant  demands 
for  sympathy.  This  condition  is  often  seen  in 
rather  advanced  students  who  study  not  from 
interest  or  thirst  for  information,  but  merely 


THE   DISORDERS   OF   ADOLESCENCE  99 

to  pass  class  tests,  or  to  demonstrate  that  the 
female  mind  is  equal  or  superior  to  the  male. 
Sometimes  they  become  proud  of  their  troubles, 
almost  challenge  a  cure,  and  are  little  benefited 
by  medical  treatment  unless  they  can  be  lead 
to  believe  that  the  fact  of  being  restored  to 
health  will  excite  more  interest  and  afford  a 
more  wonderful  topic  of  conversation  than  their 
symptoms  have  ever  done. 

Depression  and  its  reverse  state,  gaiety,  are 
often  accentuated  and  out  of  proportion  in 
youth.  The  former  is  prone  to  deepen  into 
melancholy  even  in  those  with  the  merriest 
temperament,  when  misfortune  is  experienced 
and,  especially,  when  there  is  a  hereditary 
tendency. 

Melancholia  is  not  very  common  until  after 
maturity,  though  it  begins  to  appear  with  some 
frequency  about  the  thirteenth  year.  Then  its 
onset  is  sudden  and  severe,  its  type  impulsive 
and  passionate,  and  the  prospect  of  a  restora- 
tion of  mental  balance  is  directly  proportionate 
to  the  normality  of  inheritance  and  previous 
health.  At  the  same  time,  features  that  would 
be  discouraging  in  later  life  mean  less  in  the 
young  and  are  more  curable.     Youth  is  easily 


IOO  THE   ADOLESCENT   PERIOD 

depressed  to  despair  and  as  readily  reacts  into 
hopefulness  and  gaiety,  provided  the  make-up 
be  sound. 

Neurasthenia — chronic  nervous  exhaustion 
—  and  psychasthenia — mental  fatigue — are 
symptom  groups  depending  upon  various  causes 
and  arising  frequently  during  adolescence,  espe- 
cially in  girls.  Their  features — abnormal  sen- 
sations, feelings  and  psychic  attitudes  and 
reactions — are  essentially  mental  and,  as  dis- 
orders, they  belong  in  the  neutral  field  between 
mental  health  and  actual  insanity.  While 
both  conditions  may  herald  the  beginning  of 
organic  disease  in  some  organ  only  indirectly 
connected  with  the  central  nervous  system — a 
notable  example  being  colitis — their  onset 
depends  largely  upon  abnormality  of  the  sex 
functions  existing  synchronously  or  having 
been  present  in  early  childhood,  but  they  may 
also  be  due  to  other  emotional  disturbances. 

Neurasthenia  often  begins  in  the  adolescent, 
to  become  fully  developed  later.  Its  subjects 
are  irritable,  very  sensitive,  have  a  poor  appe- 
tite and  are  constipated.  They  suffer  from 
headache  or  a  feeling  of  pressure  at  the  back 
or  top  of  the  head;  pain  in  the  back  and  legs; 


THE   DISORDERS   OF   ADOLESCENCE  IOI 

insomnia;  mental  depression  with  apprehen- 
sion and  exaggeration  of  trifling  disturbances  in 
digestion  or  circulation,  and  have  their  atten- 
tion fixed  upon  the  genito-urinary  organs. 
Other  features  are  incapacity  for  mental  ap- 
plication, with  a  disinclination  for  any  muscular 
effort  that  is  so  marked  that  they  are  only 
satisfied  when  lying  in  bed  in  a  darkened  and 
perfectly  quiet  room.  There  is  a  disposition, 
too,  to  go  into  long  descriptions  of  symptoms 
with  anyone  who  will  listen  and — a  much  more 
dangerous  one — of  resorting  to  stimulants  or 
narcotics  to  relieve  depression  and  discomfort, 
with  the  frequent  formation  of  drug  habits. 
The  nearer  puberty  the  neurasthenic  symptoms 
appear  the  more  they  suggest  mental  instability 
and  the  greater  the  care  required  to  prevent  ac- 
tual and  lasting  mental  impairment. 

In  the  practically  closely  allied  psychasthenic 
state,  patients  experience  sensations  of  in- 
completeness; of  unreality;  have  obsessions; 
pseudo-hallucinations ;  abnormal  impulses ;  phe- 
nomena of  depersonalization,  and  phobias  in 
great  variety.  Phobias,  or  pathological  fears, 
are  exemplified  in  the  algias  or  bodily  fears, 
in  fears  of  objects,  of  situations,  and  of  ideas. 


102  THE   ADOLESCENT   PERIOD 

The  phobias  of  the  body  involve  different 
parts  of  the  frame,  such  as  the  hands  feet, 
head,  chest  or  genital  organs.  They  also 
have  to  do  with  different  functions  and  ac- 
tivities, such  as  walking,  swallowing,  breath- 
ing, speech,  sight,  hearing,  smell,  and  so  on. 
The  dread  of  objects  includes  not  only  those 
that  are  actually  dangerous,  but  extends  to 
very  ordinary  things,  such  as  dirt,  people  and 
animals.  Fear  of  situations  extends  to  both 
physical  conditions — dread  of  open  spaces  or 
crowds;  dread  of  elevated  places;  dread  of 
confined  places — and  to  social  matters,  such 
as  dread  of  mistakes  and  of  looking  or  acting 
peculiarly.  Phobias  of  ideas  pertain  to  moral 
and  religious  ideas,  also  to  death  and  to  the 
onset  of  insanity  or  to  the  attack  of  any  disease. 
The  prevention  of  these  abnormal  psychic  con- 
ditions is  more  satisfactory  than  their  treat- 
ment when  established.  Certain  races,  notably 
Americans,  show  a  marked  susceptibility  to 
this  form  of  nerve  disorder.  But  no  people, 
class  nor  condition  is  exempt,  and  heredity  is  a 
potent  factor  in  the  causation.  The  latter 
fact  indicates  that  prevention  should  begin 
even  before  the  birth  of  the  individual.     In 


THE   DISORDERS   OF   ADOLESCENCE  103 

other  words,  marriage  must  be  discouraged 
in  all  those  having  inherited  neuropathic 
tendencies,  but  is  permissible  when  one  of  the 
parties  to  the  contract  has  overcome  the  dis- 
order in  the  acquired  form,  and  if  there  be  no 
nervousness  in  the  family  into  which  he  or  she 
enters.  If  one  parent  only  be  neurotic,  the 
children  are  likely  to  be  healthy. 

In  the  event  of  a  nervous  history  in  one  or 
both  parents,  preventive  measures  should  be 
begun  for  their  child  very  soon  after  its  birth. 
These  include  regular  hours  of  feeding;  food  of 
proper  quality  and  quantity;  suitable  clothing; 
sufficient  sleep;  abundant  fresh  air  and  careful 
general  regimen.  Over-anxious  mothers  do 
much  harm  by  constant  fondling,  or  by  walking 
with,  rocking  or  nursing  their  infants  every 
time  they  cry  or  show  the  least  restlessness,  and 
by  neglecting  early  to  teach  regularity  and  obe- 
dience. Infants  are  easily  trained  and  whether, 
assuming  a  normal  brain,  their  habits  are  to  be 
good  or  bad  depends  entirely  upon  the  mother 
and  nurse. 

In  childhood  the  same  careful  regimen  is 
essential.  This  age,  too,  being  the  most  im- 
pressionable and  plastic,  is  favorable  to  the 


104  THE   ADOLESCENT   PERIOD 

ready  establishment  of  habits,  and  if  bad  ones 
predominate,  efforts  toward  nervous  or  mental 
hygiene  are  greatly  hampered.  Everyone  is 
familiar  with  the  pampered,  selfish,  insolent 
child  who  rules  the  household  and  must  have 
his  own  way,  and  who,  if  he  be  thwarted, 
either  sulks  or  bursts  into  a  violent  passion.  A 
foolish,  nervous  mother  defends  such  a  child 
by  asserting  that  it  has  always  been  delicate; 
or  that  it  is  ill ;  or  attributes  its  disposition  to 
inheritance — an  excuse  for  all  bad  behavior — 
and  maintains  that  scolding  and  discipline 
merely  increase  the  trouble.  In  reality  cases 
of  this  type  are  already  in  the  nervous  class, 
but,  being  young,  it  is  still  quite  possible  to 
overcome  the  symptoms.  These  children 
should  be  handled  carefully  and  in  a  firm  kind 
manner,  be  taught  obedience,  self-restraint, 
consideration  for  others  and  any  bad  sex  habit 
must  be  watched  for  and  broken.  Care  must 
be  taken  that  they  get  plenty  of  rest,  sleep, 
fresh  air  and  regular  moderate  exercise,  with 
a  daily  sponge  bath  of  cool  or  cold  water;  that 
the  bowels  be  properly  evacuated,  and  that 
they  eat  regularly  and  simply,  coffee,  tea  and 
stimulating  drinks  being  forbidden.     Excite- 


THE   DISORDERS   OF  ADOLESCENCE  105 

ment,  competitive  games  and  over-severe  ex- 
ercise are  especially  harmful. 

To  carry  out  properly  the  above  measures 
it  may  be  necessary  to  remove  the  child  from 
home  and  family  influence,  under  the  care  of  a 
carefully  chosen  governess  or  an  intelligent 
trained  nurse,  the  selection  falling  upon  one 
who  is  kind,  firm  without  harshness,  and  one 
who  has  had  some  experience  in  similar  cases. 

Lessons  at  school  should  not  begin  before 
the  seventh  year  and  under  no  circumstances 
should  nervous  children  be  forced  in  their 
studies.  When  home  conditions  are  unfavor- 
able educationally,  it  is  best  to  send  the  child 
to  a  good  boarding-school,  where  regularity, 
obedience  and  outdoor  exercise  take  a  promi- 
nent place  in  the  curriculum. 

An  only  child  is  frequently  spoiled  and  often 
becomes  nervous.  Children  need,  and  should 
have,  the  educational  influences  of  companions 
near  their  own  age. 

When  the  preceding  preventive  measures 
have  been  thoroughly  carried  out,  good  nerve 
habits  should  be  sufficiently  well  formed  to 
carry  the  individual  safely  through  adolescence. 
Certain  risks,  however,  accompany  the  dawn  of 


106  THE   ADOLESCENT   PERIOD 

sex  consciousness,  and  the  passage  from  child- 
hood to  maturity,  in  either  sex,  should  be 
carefully  supervised.  The  physical  changes  of 
this  transition  period  are  marked,  and  often 
surprise  and  shock  the  uninformed.  This  is 
particularly  the  case  in  girls  who,  from  false 
modesty  as  to  sexual  matters  on  their  mother's 
part,  have  received  no  instruction  about  the 
menstrual  function.  Those  uninitiated  are  in 
danger,  too,  of  the  occurrence  of  mysterious 
and  vague  ideas  and  the  formation  of  habits  of 
self-inspection,  masturbation  and  other  abnor- 
mal practices.  On  this  account  all  children 
approaching  puberty  should  be  given  a  brief, 
plain  explanation  of  sex  functions.  (See  Chap- 
ter VI.) 

In  addition  the  physical,  mental  and  moral 
training  of  adolescents  requires  close  attention. 
With  the  nervous,  brain  work  must  be  moder- 
ate and  secondary  to  muscular  exercise  which, 
in  turn,  should  be  systematic  and  carefully 
selected  to  meet  individual  needs.  Rowing, 
swimming,  games  of  ball,  riding  and  gymnas- 
tics, under  an  experienced  instructor,  are 
useful.  When  it  is  thought  best  to  educate 
away  from  home,  the  boarding-school  to  select 


THE   DISORDERS   OF   ADOLESCENCE  107 

is  one  in  which  physical  exercise  is  compulsory, 
and  one  situated  in  the  country  or  in  a  small 
town.  The  latter  because,  on  account  of  there 
being  fewer  distracting  influences,  master  and 
pupil  come  into  closer  and  more  constant  asso- 
ciation, and  because  the  principal  amusements 
are  the  healthy  open-air  sports.  The  best 
modern  schools  are  showing  an  increasing 
tendency  to  shorten  the  hours  of  study  and 
increase  those  of  play,  making  the  more  moder- 
ate athletic  games  an  important  part  of  the 
student's  life.  Schools  having  a  drill  master 
and  military  methods  of  training  are  the  best 
for  young  boys  who  have  not  learned,  at  home, 
to  be  obedient,  punctual,  self-restrained  and 
respectful. 

The  management  of  existent  neurasthenia 
and  the  different  phobias  and  neuroses  must  be 
left  to  the  medical  expert.  Like  hysteria,  how- 
ever, they  are  best  treated  by  removing  the 
patient  from  home  to  any  suitable  place  where, 
in  new  surroundings,  emotional  control  be- 
comes much  easier,  and  where  the  daily  life 
can  be  strictly  regulated.  Beyond  this  and 
proper  nursing  the  requisites  are  a  nutritious 
diet,  rest — but  not  a  complete  "rest  cure" — 


108  THE   ADOLESCENT   PERIOD 

massage,  proper  bathing  and  a  tonic  regimen. 
Thus  the  bodily  health  is  established  and, 
gradually,  emotional  control  is  brought  about 
by  occupation  and  suggestion  and,  in  appro- 
priate cases,  by  the  employment  of  psycho- 
analysis as  already  explained. 

Disturbed  Mentality. — The  years  of  sexual 
evolution — from  twelve  to  twenty  or  more — 
are  quite  prone  to  mental  unbalance  bordering 
upon  insanity,  and  this  epoch  marks  the  de- 
rangement with  special  characteristics.  The 
want  of  balance  is  influenced  by  heredity  in 
both  sexes,  but  is  more  common  in  females  on 
account  of  the  relative  preponderance  of  the 
sexual  organs,  their  more  rapid  developmental 
changes  and  the  periodicity  of  their  function. 

The  power  of  restraint  becomes  impaired; 
modesty,  generosity,  sympathy  and  natural 
tenderness  give  way  to  self-assertion,  selfishness 
and  cruel  lack  of  affection,  and  there  are  alter- 
nating stages  of  depression  and  excitement, 
bearing  some  relation  to  the  menstrual  periods. 
The  intervals  of  depression  are  marked  by  va- 
rious phobias;  thus  the  patient  dreads  being  sus- 
pected of  bad  conduct  or  of  evil  acts  never 
done;  fears  that  she  is  being  tracked  or  watched, 


THE  DISORDERS   OF  ADOLESCENCE  109 

and  refuses  to  eat  lest  she  be  poisoned;  all  so 
real  and  despiriting  to  the  sufferer  that  the  idea 
of  suicide  is  suggested.  In  the  opposite  state 
of  excitement  there  are  tendencies  to  foolish 
jesting,  levity  in  situations  of  gravity,  and  al- 
together excessive  hilarity,  the  distressing 
fears  being  entirely  forgotten.  Further,  in  this 
state,  there  may  be  restlessness;  great  irrita- 
bility; quarrelsomeness  with  outbursts  of  vio- 
lence— very  disproportionate  to  the  provocation 
received-^impulsiveness  of  affection  or  hatred; 
suspicions  of  ill-usage  and  personal  slights,  and 
exaggeration  of  the  trouble  attending  any 
undertaking.  - 

Sometimes  the  mental  bias  takes  some 
special,  single  direction.  One  girl  may  develop 
a  passion  for  wasting.  She  may  order  an 
extravagant  dinner,  let  each  course  remain 
untasted,  and  after  it  is  all  served  and  refused 
call  for  and  eat  a  little  of  some  other  ex- 
pensive dish.  She  may  squander  her  parents' 
money  in  dresses  which  she  hardly  wears 
and  when  she  already  has  plenty;  fritter  away 
her  own  and  her  servants'  time  by  demanding 
service  which  she  could  perfectly  easily  perform 
herself.     She  may  waste  many  of  her  own 


IIO  THE   ADOLESCENT   PERIOD 

hours  by  going  to  bed  in  the  face  of  any  trouble 
— no  matter  how  trifling — and  after  marriage 
is  apt  to  ruin  her  husband's  disposition  and 
waste  his  life  by  unceasing  demands  and  by 
constant  nagging  to  gratify  some  new  desire. 
Another,  very  contented  and  loving  as  a 
child,  experiences  a  complete  reversal  of  dis- 
position during  adolescence,  turning  against 
her  parents  and  devotedly  attaching  herself 
to  some  one  else;  becomes  very  unhappy 
and  is  possessed  with  the  idea  that  she  is  being 
watched  and  persecuted,  and  finally  throws 
off  all  family  ties  and  duties  to  be  independent 
and  support  herself.  This  type  of  case  shows 
two  features  that  are  very  common  and  un- 
fortunately on  the  increase  at  present.  These 
are  suppression  of  natural  affection  with  a 
craving  for  some  unrelated,  or  even  imaginary, 
older  person  of  the  same  sex  on  whom  to  lavish 
affection,  and  a  desire  to  lead  what  is  called 
"one's  own  life,"  duty  to  family  or  to  society 
having  no  place  in  certain  schools  of  modern 
thought.  Patients  like  these  too  often  show 
to  the  world  the  best  side  of  their  natures  and 
are  frequently  very  charming  to  strangers,  so 
that  their  true  character  is  only  known  in  the 


THE   DISORDERS   OF  ADOLESCENCE  III 

homes  they  have  broken  up  and  rendered 
desolate. 

All  decided  cases  of  mental  unbalance  have 
little  power  to  resist  instinctive  impulses  and 
mental  impressions,  and  if  not  carefully  man- 
aged may  drift  into  grave  and  established  in- 
sanity. They  require  change  of  environment; 
judiciously  prolonged  rest  in  bed,  as  their 
general  condition  is  usually  one  of  exhaus- 
tion; careful  nourishment;  treatment  of  any 
physical  disorder,  and  general  management 
which  must  be  kind  and  firm  but  free  from 
over-sympathy. 

Dementia  praecox  a  prominent  form  of  in- 
sanity in  the  young  is  due  to  heredity  or  to  a 
constitutional  predisposition  to  nervous  dis- 
turbance, and  is  characterized  by  an  early 
deterioration  of  brain  power.  It  includes  the 
conditions  formerly  classed  as  insanity  of 
pubescence;  of  masturbation;  ovarian  insanity, 
and  hebephrenia,  in  which  periods  of  shyness 
and  depression  alternate  with  boasting,  self- 
assertion  and  delusions  in  regard,  for  instance, 
to  property,  religion  or  personality.  Also 
katatonia  with  its  states  of  insensibility,  mus- 
cular rigidity,  word  repetition,  imitation  and 


112  THE   ADOLESCENT   PERIOD 

unconscious  actions,  and  finally  stuporous 
melancholia. 

Juvenile  paresis  is  another  disorder  appear- 
ing about  puberty  or  even  at  a  much  earlier 
age. 

But  it  is  not  in  place  here  to  go  further  into 
the  subject  of  insanity  than  to  state  the  im- 
portant causal  factors.  These  are  heredity, 
especially  from  the  mother's  side;  too  early 
and  difficult  brain  work;  severe  over- tax  of  the 
emotions;  fright;  imitation;  the  development 
of  puberty,  and  bad  sexual  habits.  Etiolog- 
ically,  too  early  over,  or  under,  mental  training 
is  as  bad  for  the  leisure  class,  as  are  excessive 
manual  work  and  imperfect  hygiene  for  the 
poor.  Girls  inherit  insanity  more  readily  than 
boys,  and  as  a  class  are  more  liable  to  mental 
diseases,  this  is  due  partly  to  the  pubertal 
changes  being  more  extended,  and  partly  to 
the  fact  that  they  are  more  prone  to  such 
nutritional  defects  as  anaemia  and  chlorosis, 
with  attendant  systemic  weakness  and  men- 
strual irregularities. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  FAULTS  AND   CRIMINAL  TENDENCIES  OF 
ADOLESCENTS 

There  are  abundant  records  to  show  that 
criminal  actions,  in  both  boys  and  girls,  greatly 
increase  between  the  ages  of  twelve  and  fifteen 
years,  and  that  at  this  time  most  vicious  careers 
are  started.  It  is  well  known,  too,  that  the 
number  of  juvenile  delinquents  is  constantly 
growing,  and  that  wrong-doing  begins  at  an 
increasingly  early  age;  these  occurrences  de- 
pending upon  the  precocious  attainment  of 
maturity,  which,  in  turn,  is  encouraged  by  the 
many  forcing  conditions  of  modern  life,  espe- 
cially in  cities. 

Usually  conduct  is  good  at  the  age  of  eleven 
^years,  less  so  at  twelve  ^tnd  thirteen,  and  worst 
■>— at  fourteen.  After  this  there  is  improvement 
^  ^until  at  seventeen,  adolescents  behave  as  well 
as  children  of  eleven,  and  at  eighteen  distinctly 
*    better. 

In  the  causation  of  crime  the  most  impor- 

8  113 


114  THE   ADOLESCENT   PERIOD 

tant  factors  are  bad  inheritance;  ill-health  in 
early  years;  neglect  and  desertion  by  parents; 
illegitimacy;  entire  want  of  homes  or  corrupt 
ones;  over-crowded,  filthy  dwellings  in  which 
adults  and  children  are  huddled  together  in  one 
room  and  often  sleep  in  the  same  bed,  and  the 
contaminating  environment  of  slum  life  with 
its  disregard  for  decency  and  law. 

As  to  the  nature  of  the  offenses,  vagrancy 
and  crimes  against  property  are  most  common 
from  twelve  to  fifteen  and  even  up  to  the 
twentieth  year,  and  show  the  difficulty  which 
the  young  have  in  adapting  themselves  to  their 
social  surroundings.  The  restraint  of  school 
brings  out  the  nomad  instinct,  and  the  passing 
from  the  communal  condition  of  family  life 
to  industrial  strife  with  its  many  restrictions 
develops  the  natural  impulse  of  self-maintenance 
and  resistance  to  the  laws  of  property.  Crimes 
against  person  arise  later,  from  twenty-one  to 
twenty-five,  and  depend  upon  undue  self- 
consideration.  In  more  detail,  truancy,  usu- 
ally the  first  violation  of  established  rules,  is 
most  common  at  thirteen;  fourteen  is  the  year 
of  incorrigibility,  maliciousness  and  trespass; 
fifteen  for  petty  larceny  and  open  drunkenness, 


THE   FAULTS   OF   ADOLESCENCE  II 5 

and  seventeen  for  sexual  crimes.  Children 
under  sixteen  lack  the  strength  and  knowl- 
edge to  become  worse  than  vagrants  or  to 
indulge  in  more  than  trifling  thefts;  neverthe- 
less their  faults  must  be  corrected,  since  they 
are  the  first  steps  toward  habitual  adult  crimi- 
nality. Crime,  unfortunately,  tends  to  increase 
and  intensify  as  age  advances. 

Children  neither  possess  the  ability  to  con- 
trol self  nor  have  they  a  realization  of  the  neces- 
sity of  restraint,  both  coming  only  with  time 
and  experience.  If  the  child  be  degenerate  and 
belong  to  the  criminal  class  and  live  in  a  bad 
environment  or  have  brutal  instincts  more 
developed  than  intelligence,  there  is  great 
danger  that  this  essential  power  may  never 
be  acquired  with  the  resultant  yielding  to  the 
faults  and  desires  natural  to,  but  repressed  by, 
all  normal  individuals.  Self-control  then  is  the 
foundation  of  right  living;  its  culture  is  the 
chief  aim  of  family  life,  of  the  laws  and  customs 
of  states  and  religion,  and  the  most  advanced 
and  free  communities  are  those  in  which  it  is 
best  and  most  generally  established. 

In  dealing  with  youthful  delinquents  it  must 
be  remembered  that,  so  long  as  there  is  devel- 


Il6  THE   ADOLESCENT   PERIOD 

opmental  progress,  it  is  quite  possible  to  over- 
come vicious  traits  and  place  the  individual 
upon  a  straight  path.  Many  criminals  are 
capable  of  leading  correct  lives  and  of  being  suc- 
cessful in  honest  undertakings;  requiring,  only, 
to  be  properly  guided  and  removed  from  bad 
surroundings. 

The  age  of  moral  responsibility — when  the 
child  becomes  able  to  discern  the  difference 
between  right  and  wrong — is  variable.  Most 
communities  set  it  legally  as  beginning  at  ten 
or  twelve  and  being  fully  established  at  six- 
teen or  eighteen  years.  However,  this  knowl- 
edge when  it  comes,  does  not  always  bring 
the  power  to  resist  lawless  acts,  and  this  fact 
should  be  taken  into  account  in  measuring  the 
punishment  of  the  young.  First  offenses, 
especially,  being  investigated  for  extenuating 
conditions  and  judged  temperately.  The  of- 
fenders should  be  sentenced  by  special  officers 
in  comparatively  secret  courts.  Instead  of  a 
prison  with  its  contaminating  influences,  dis- 
grace and  risk  of  criminal  contagion,  separate 
^lacesof  detention  should  be  provided  by  state 
or  private  n^ansior  reformation  and  training. 
Further,  and  best  of  all,  those  not  in  the  in- 


THE  FAULTS  OF  ADOLESCENCE      117 

corrigible  class  should  be  taken  from  vicious 
parents  or  from  the  streets  and  placed  in 
selected  families  where  they  are  subjected  to 
home  influences,  sent  to  school,  and,  in  addi- 
tion, taught  to  work  regularly  and  systemat- 
ically, a  very  important  element  in  their 
salvation. 

Without  going  deeper  into  the  question  of 
juvenile  crime/' consideration  may  be  given  to 
certain  faults  and  traits  of  frequent  occurrence 
in  children  who  are  far  from  being  in  the  crimi- 
nal group,  but  which,  under  favoring  circum- 
stances, may  lead  to  occasional  or  habitual  law 
breaking. 

Conduct  seems  to  be  considerably  affected 
by  atmospheric  conditions;  more  misdemeanors 
are  committed  when  there  is  great  humidity; 
when  the  temperature  ranges  over  qo°F.  ;  when 
there  are  decided  barometric  variations  or  ex- 
cessive wind  movements,  and  the  state  of  the 
weather  has  a  marked  influence  upon  truancy, 
a  fault  to  which  youth  is  much  inclined. 

Truancy. — The  tendency  to  this  fault  in- 
creases markedly  at  puberty.  This  age  craves 
a  free,  outdoor  life  and  rebels  against  school 
with  its  restrictions  and  stilted  methods  of 


Il8  THE   ADOLESCENT  PERIOD 

instruction,  or  against  colorless  and  uncom- 
fortable home  life,  and  a  desire  arises  to  run 
away  in  search  of  something  newer,  better  and 
less  limited.  Again,  accustomed  surroundings 
grow  tame  and  monotonous  and  a  wandering 
life  affords  a  chance  of  escape  and  change. 
Sometimes  the  truant  feels  that  he  must  get 
to  and  bathe  in  some  shaded  water  pool,  or 
the  spring  weather  is  so  fine  and  warm  and  the 
world  of  nature  so  beautiful  that  he  cannot 
endure  the  confinement  of  the  class  room  and 
must  be  out.  This  craving  shows  that  dis- 
position and  surroundings  are  not  in  harmony, 
and  when  the  bonds  are  once  thoroughly 
broken  there  is  danger  of  drifting  to  settled 
vagrancy.  The  truant  is  often  more  than  ordi- 
narily energetic,  requires  interesting  bodily  ex- 
ercise, and,  if  properly  directed  is  capable  of 
great  usefulness  in  open-air  occupations.  Over- 
repressed  he  becomes  a  tramp,  and  soon  a  thief 
as  he  wanders  about  irresponsible,  uncontrolled 
and  little  noticed. 

Lying. — Distortion  of  facts  or  the  telling  of 
deliberate  falsehoods  are,  sadly  enough,  the 
usual  methods  of  concealing  misconduct  and  a 
lie  springs  naturally  to  vicious  lips,  or  is  soon 


THE  FAULTS  OF  ADOLESCENCE      119 

adopted  to  avert  suspicion  and  punishment. 
All  untruths  are  not  equally  bad.  Children 
at  various  times  in  their  early  lives — after  the 
fourth  or  fifth  year — begin  to  imagine  and  en- 
joy telling  experiences  and  talking  about  things 
that  have  no  real  existence.  They  say  that 
they  have  seen  strange  creatures  in  their  walks; 
pretend  that  they  are  horses  and  dogs,  play  at 
house-keeping  and  at  such  serious  matters  as 
weddings  and  funerals;  or  make  believe  to  be 
some  relative  or  older  friend  and  rehearse  their 
sayings  and  doings.  These  pretences,  while  of 
course  false,  are  very  innocent  untruths  and 
have  self-deception  for  their  chief  pleasure. 
They  show  merely  the  beginning  of  imagination 
and  should  not  be  crushed  but  carefully  di- 
rected, being  important  elements  in  certain 
spheres  of  mental  activity,  notably  romance 
and  dramatic  writing.  Sometimes,  when  un- 
controlled, they  may  lead  to  morbid  imitations 
and  hypocrisy,  but  more  good  than  bad  results 
from  them. 

Children  often  reserve  the  truth  for  friends 
and  consider  that  they  are  justified  in  deceiving 
those  they  dislike,  and  in  telling  lies  to  help  their 
fellows.    They  find  it  difficult  to  be  untruth- 


120  THE   .ADOLESCENT   PERIOD 

ful  with  a  parent  they  love  or  to  cheat  at  school 
if  they  admire  their  teacher;  at  the  same  time 
promises  made  in  hours  of  intimacy  seem  less 
binding  and  are  readily  broken  when  friend- 
ship wanes.  Such  lies  show  a  lack  of  moral 
sense  and  a  need  of  its  awakening  and  cultiva- 
tion, and  while  not  necessarily  bad,  may  be 
the  beginning  of  worse  and  habitual  deception. 

The  chivalrous  He  has  some  of  the  same  child- 
ish characteristics.  It  is  used  not  for  any  self- 
benefit  but  to  help  another  out  of  some  diffi- 
culty or  to  prevent  injury  to  a  friend.  The 
object  may  seem  to  justify  the  deception  by 
being  seductively  noble,  as  when  a  falsehood 
may  save  a  classmate  from  the  disgrace  of  ex- 
pulsion from  school,  but  the  difficulty  is,  that, 
while  the  individual  would  not  lie  to  save  him- 
self, the  initial  untruth,  however  generous, 
weakens  the  truth  habit  and  makes  meaner 
lying  easier.  Nevertheless  this  form  of  false- 
hood may  become  a  question  of  duty  and  honor 
which  must  be  left  to  the  individual  conscience. 

Childish  weakness  and  timidity  encourage 
concealment  to  avoid  punishment,  and  lies  are 
ready  shields  for  mischievous  or  vicious  acts 
and  bad  habits.     These,  purely  selfish  lies  are 


THE  FAULTS  OF  ADOLESCENCE      121 

the  most  common  and  demoralizing  forms  of 
untruth,  are  very  difficult  to  overcome  and  pre- 
vail in  the  criminally  inclined. 

Lying  may  also  result  from  a  desire  to  gain  an 
advantage  over  companions;  from  imitation; 
self-interest;  rivalry  and  retaliation,  and  from 
indolence. 

Some  boys,  but  more  especially  girls  of  thir- 
teen or  more,  together  with  an  extremely  selfish, 
affected  disposition,  a  longing  to  attract  atten- 
tion and  a  tendency  to  pose,  are  habitual  liars 
and  take  pleasure  in  deceit  because  it  gives 
them  a  sense  of  importance  measured  by  the 
trouble  they  occasion  others.  In  contrast  to 
these  constitutional  liars  are  those  who  be- 
come over-exact  and  look  upon  every  departure 
from  the  literal  truth  as  equally  sinful.  They 
avoid  the  risk  of  telling  a  falsehood  or  of 
conveying  an  untruthful  impression  by  a  men- 
tal or  whispered  reservation,  and  are  continu- 
ally depressed  by  the  fear  that  they  may  have 
deceived. 

The  faculty  of  truthfulness  develops  late 
and  with  some  difficulty.  It  can  be  established 
by  striking  at  the  root  of  each  type  of  lie.  It  is 
not  favored  by  modern  social  usages,  such  as 


122  THE   ADOLESCENT   PERIOD 

the  butler's  reply  "not  at  home"  when  the 
hostess  is  really  within  but  not  willing  to  re- 
ceive callers.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  encour- 
aged by  precept  and  example  to  shun  pretence 
of  any  kind,  to  be  fearless,  and  to  speak  plainly 
and  without  exaggeration  either  as  to  matter  or 
phrase. 

Anger  in  its  marked  form  is  a  passing  insan- 
ity, which  for  the  time  being  hampers  rational 
self-direction  and  sometimes  is  responsible  for 
grievous  injury  to  an  offending  person  through 
the  animal  instinct  of  revenge.  After  the  storm 
there  is  weakness  and  relaxation,  occasionally 
nausea,  and  great  remorse,  with  apologies  and 
resolutions  to  refrain  in  the  future  from  giving 
away  to  fits  of  temper. 

Anger  may  flare  out  without  apparent  provo- 
cation, though  it  is  usually  caused  by  the  denial 
of  some  strong  desire;  interference  with  as- 
sumed personal  rights  or  liberties;  objectionable 
commands  as  to  dress  or  behavior;  ridicule; 
hurts  to  self-esteem,  and  other  slights  and  dis- 
appointments. Adolescents  are  more  influ- 
enced by  these  various  causes  than  young  chil- 
dren, but,  when  normal,  they  very  soon  begin 
to  see  the  futility  and  evil  of  rage  and  make 


THE   FAULTS   OF  ADOLESCENCE  1 23 

great  and  more  or  less  successful  efforts  at  con- 
trol. This  is  particularly  true  of  girls,  who  with 
the  arrival  of  puberty  seem  to  develop  a  re- 
markable capacity  of  repression,  though  they 
show  an  unfortunate  tendency  to  substitute 
harsh  and  cutting  words  for  violent  physical 
acts. 

While  youth  is  both  peculiarly  sensitive  and 
very  susceptible  to  the  causes  that  excite  ill- 
temper,  any  undue  repression  at  this  age  is 
apt  to  ruin  the  general  disposition,  making  it 
bitter  and  vindictive.  Indignation  is  bottled 
up  and  its  expression  postponed,  and  when  it 
explodes  finally  is  more  serious  in  its  effects, 
because  of  the  long- considered  toll  of  reprisal 
required,  as  well  as  the  greater  knowledge  and 
strength  for  its  taking.  It  is  better,  therefore, 
not  to  try  to  eradicate  entirely  this  fault,  but 
rather  to  turn  it  toward  the  mean  and  bad 
things  of  life  and  bend  it  to  making  the  indi- 
vidual forceful  in  the  struggle  for  place  in  the 
world  and  in  his  opposition  to  cowardice  and 
all  wickedness. 

The  passionate  who  have  no  power  of  re- 
straint grow  worse  as  age  advances  and  many 
become  criminally  dangerous,  while  the  morose 


124  THE   ADOLESCENT   PERIOD 

who  continually  brood  over  affronts  and  in- 
juries may  nurse  their  anger  to  the  point  of 
crazy  violence.  All  are  benefited  by  firm, 
carefully  directed  management,  and  made 
worse  by  indulgence  and  by  insufficient  correc- 
tion or  too  ready  forgiveness  for  their  conduct 
during  a  paroxysm  of  rage. 

Envy  and  jealousy  are  faults  that  preclude 
true  friendship  and,  when  extreme,  may  lead 
toward  criminal  acts.  These  traits  are  much 
more  frequently  present  in  growing  girls  than 
in  boys,  are  most  noticeable  in  small  and  poor 
communities,  and  it  is  probable  that  they  are 
the  echoes  of  instinctive  efforts  for  survival  and 
to  obtain  for  self  the  choice  things  of  life.  It  is 
hard  for  anyone,  particularly  the  young  girl,  to 
acknowledge  that  companions  of  the  same  age 
are  handsomer,  more  cultivated  or  more  favored 
in  a  worldly  way,  and  sometimes  base  and  sly 
steps  are  taken  to  discredit  them,  or  hatred  of 
their  success  may  be  expressed  by  insults  and 
even  bodily  injury.  Further,  with  the  develop- 
ment of  puberty  competition  for  the  notice  and 
regard  of  the  opposite  sex  begins  and  gradu- 
ally becomes  intense.  With  this  rivalry  comes 
jealousy,  the  coarse  fault  as  well  as  measure  of 


THE   FAULTS   OF   ADOLESCENCE  1 25 

physical  love.  Much  may  be  done  to  over- 
come these  faults  by  more  home  attention  and 
more  demonstrative  parental  affection.  En- 
couraging results,  too,  can  be  obtained  by  point- 
ing out  individual  good  qualities  and,  so  far 
as  truthfully  possible,  making  favorable  com- 
parisons with  those  supposedly  more  fortunate 
or  successful. 

Teasing. — Many  boys  and  some  girls  who 
are  quite  good  natured  and  entirely  without 
hatred  take  delight  in,  and  cannot  resist,  an- 
noying younger  and  weaker  companions,  and 
are  most  pleased  when  their  worrying  causes 
weeping  or  excites  a  burst  of  anger.  The 
methods  of  teasing  differ  greatly:  it  may  be 
doing  some  one  unpleasant  thing  or  applying 
some  one  hated  epithet;  in  taking  and  hiding 
an  article  of  personal  property;  in  ridiculing 
dress  or  mannerisms;  in  inflicting  physical 
pain;  in  forcing  some  action  by  menace  or 
actual  violence,  and  in  general  domineering 
and  bullying.  The  ordinary  teaser  generally 
becomes  sorry  for  his  victim  when  his  suffer- 
ing reaches  distress  and,  growing  sympathetic, 
desists.  The  disposition  to  tease  is  difficult  to 
overcome.     The  tormentor  is  apt  to  develop 


126  THE   ADOLESCENT  PERIOD 

into  a  bully  and  does  himself  more  harm  than 
his  victim  in  whom  the  persecution  frequently 
brings  out  valuable  qualities  of  resistance. 
Something  may  be  accomplished  by  cultivating 
the  quality  of  generosity,  which  few  children 
really  lack,  and  by  pointing  out  the  humanity 
of  helping  the  weak  and  inferior  and  of  disre- 
garding defects  of  person  or  fortune.  An  ap- 
peal to  pity  will  often  do  much  good. 

Organization  for  Law-breaking. — Boys  from 
ten  to  fifteen  years  of  age  show  a  marked 
disposition  to  associate  themselves  into  bands 
which,  under  normal  conditions,  are  later  per- 
petuated and  perfected  in  athletic  clubs. 
These  groupings  may  have  very  innocent  ob- 
jects, as  when  the  young  make  believe  that  they 
are  Indians,  build  forts  or  play  soldiers.  On 
the  other  hand,  in  the  older  and  with  boys  of 
the  streets  the  aims  of  the  gang  may  be  theft, 
fighting  with  sometimes  serious  results,  other 
forms  of  crime,  and  general  disorder  and  de- 
fiance of  law.  It  is  important  to  recognize 
the  existence  of  this  instinct  of  association, 
and  by  proper  influence  give  it  a  healthy 
direction  toward  athletic  sports  and  muscular 
development. 


THE   FAULTS   OF  ADOLESCENCE  1 27 

Theft. — Young  children  in  comfortable 
homes  are  accustomed  to  look  upon  household 
things  as  belonging  in  common  to  all  members 
of  the  family.  Being  dependent,  they  are 
brought  up  to  believe  that  the  necessities  of 
life — food,  clothes  and  bed — are  free  to  them, 
and  the  same  idea  is  unwisely  accentuated  at 
many  schools  where  pupils  are  allowed  to  take 
from  one  another,  with  little  or  no  asking,  any 
article  they  may  need  or  want.  It  is  readily 
seen,  therefore,  how  outside  of  home  or  school 
the  child  may  take  things  he  fancies  without 
realizing  he  is  doing  anything  wrong  until 
taught,  sometimes  by  bitter  lessons,  the  sacred- 
ness  of  property  rights.  Notwithstanding  this 
faulty  preliminary  training,  very  few  normal 
and  respectable  children  steal,  and  those  who 
do,  very  soon  learn  to  control  themselves. 

Older  children  often  steal  from  a  spirit  of  ad- 
venture or  to  tease,  as  when  they  rob  a  neigh- 
bor's garden,  finding  more  pleasure  from 
annoying  and  outwitting  the  owner  and  dis- 
regarding the  "no  trespass"  sign  than  in  eating 
the  fruit  they  take. 

Still  neither  these  depredations  nor  the  petty 
pilfering  of  the  younger  child  should  be  over- 


128  THE  ADOLESCENT   PERIOD 

looked,  as  either  may  bring  out  some  latent 
criminal  taint  and  be  the  first  step  in  the  gen- 
eration of  a  stealthy  thief,  swindler  or  robber 
who  plans  his  crimes  and  steals  to  gratify  selfish 
desires;  who  wastes  his  life  in  vicious  idleness, 
and  heaps  up  criminality  by  inducing  others 
to  adopt  his  profession.  Once  formed,  the 
theft  habit  is  very  difficult  to  eradicate,  espe- 
cially in  the  case  of  females,  and  these  are 
strangely  most  disposed  to  steal  during  the 
time  of  the  menstrual  flow. 

Incendiarism. — Very  young  children  are 
given  to  lighting  matches  or  throwing  things 
on  the  flames  to  see  them  burn;  the  same  in- 
clination is  seen  in  boys  when  they  run  to  fires, 
and  all  are  at  heart  fire  worshippers  and  delight 
to  sit  near  and  watch  a  pile  of  logs  burning. 
Incendiarism  is  an  exaggeration  of  this  instinct. 
It  is  a  crime  of  adolescence  and  originates  from 
various  motives.  These  may  be  simply  a  pas- 
sion for  seeing  things  burn,  or  for  the  excitement 
of  the  hurrying  engines,  the  working  firemen, 
and  the  saving  of  property  or  life,  and  often 
having  started  a  fire  the  incendiary  shows  his 
humanity  by  calling  for  help  and  assisting  in 
extinguishing   it.     Again   the   blaze   may   be 


THE  FAULTS  OF  ADOLESCENCE      I2Q 

kindled  for  revenge,  gain  or  jealousy,  and  in 
"  pyromaniacs "  at  the  instance  of  imagined 
commands  to  destroy. 

Intemperance. — The  abuse  of  alcohol  in 
children  is  not  so  rare  as  one  would  imagine. 
I  have  myself  seen  a  case  of  delirium  tremens 
in  a  boy  of  ten  years.  But  inebriety  does  not 
usually  begin  until  after  the  fifteenth  year  when 
the  boy  or  girl  associates  more  freely  with  older 
men  and  women  and  generally  has  a  social 
origin.  Alcohol  first  stimulates  and  subse- 
quently stupefies,  and  the  pleasure  of  intoxica- 
tion attends  the  primary  effects,  namely:  a 
feeling  of  well-being;  freedom  from  care;  a 
sense  of  increased  mental  and  physical  power; 
sociability;  broadening  and  deepening  of  the 
emotions,  or,  in  a  word,  general  exhilaration. 
Adolescence,  more  than  any  other  age,  longs 
for  excitement  and  new  sensations;  these  are 
produced  by  alcohol  quickly  and  surely. 
There  is,  consequently,  great  danger  of  the 
formation  of  the  drink  habit  at  this  time  of  life, 
and  this  is  particularly  true  of  students  and 
those  who  have  a  bad  inheritance  in  this 
direction. 

It  is  an  unsettled  question  whether  it  is 
9 


130  THE   ADOLESCENT   PERIOD 

better  to  accustom  the  young  to  see  wine  con- 
stantly upon  the  home  table  and  to  teach  them 
to  use  it  temperately  or  to  forbid  it  entirely. 
Both  plans  have  their  advocates,  but  total 
abstinence  seems  safer.  The  young,  when 
healthy,  do  not  require  stimulants;  on  the  con- 
trary, the  ageing  often  do,  and  if  use  of  alcohol 
be  begun  only  when  needed  by  general  physical 
deterioration — after  middle  life — the  result 
would  be  the  making  of  very  few  drunkards. 

Prostitution. — It  is  unnecessary  here  to  go 
further  into  this  subject  than  to  counsel  the 
parents  of  pubescent  girls  to  encourage  in  them 
modesty,  self-respect  and  the  natural  sense  of 
shame  which  are  the  chief  fortifications  of 
virtue.  Also  to  prevent  their  reading  immoral 
books  and  looking  at  indecent  pictures  or 
actions;  to  give  them  some  suitable  instruction 
in  sexual  matters;  to  secure  them  the  privacy 
of  separate  sleeping  rooms;  to  be  sure  of  the 
purity  of  attendant  servants,  and  reasonably  to 
supervise  the  character  of,  as  well  as  the  rela- 
tions with,  male  companions.  In  the  mixed 
play  of  children,  even  in  the  quite  young,  it  is 
always  well  to  be  watchful,  as  one  pervert  is 


THE  FAULTS  OF  ADOLESCENCE      131 

capable  of  working  wide  and  lasting  moral 
damage. 

Suicide. — Self-destruction  may  occur  in  early 
childhood  but  is  more  common  about  the  be- 
ginning of  puberty,  though  still  much  less  so 
than  in  adult  and  middle  life.  It  is  a  crime  of 
greater  frequency  in  males — except  in  the 
interval  from  the  fifteenth  to  the  twentieth 
years,  when  the  suicidal  impulse  is  more 
marked  in  females — chiefly  on  account  of  the 
greater  and  wider  changes  accompanying  sex 
development.  Motives  for  the  act  may  be  ob- 
vious or  apparently  entirely  wanting.  Young 
children  who  kill  themselves  usually  do  so  be- 
cause they  wish  to  grieve  those  who,  while  lov- 
ing them  deeply,  have,  nevertheless,  wounded 
their  feelings,  a  method  of  getting  revenge 
for  offenses  or  supposedly  unjust  punishment 
which  they  are  too  feeble  physically  to  get  in 
any  other  way.  They  have  no  proper  con- 
ception of  either  life  or  death  and  think,  and 
often  say,  that  if  they  die,  the  injuring  person, 
whom  they  often  really  love  themselves,  will 
be  sorry.  The  affront  may  be  very  trifling,  as 
a  reproof  or  a  request  denied,  and  the  deed  may 
be  done  suddenly  and  without  premeditation. 


132  THE   ADOLESCENT  PERIOD 

Such  motives  sometimes  prevail  to  a  later  age 
and  are  more  common  in  girls  than  in  boys. 

About  the  time  of  leaving  school,  particu- 
larly where  education  has  been  over-ambitious, 
disappointed  expectations,  a  feeling  of  or 
proved  unfitness  to  fill  some  high  position 
aimed  at,  a  disinclination  to  settle  down  to 
ordinary  wage-earning  occupations  and  the 
drudgery  and  sameness  of  a  working  life,  so 
different  from  academic  dreams,  become,  in 
the  weak,  powerful  inducements  to  end  the 
struggle.  This  disillusion  and  uncertainty  is 
very  general  with  adolescents  in  schools  and 
colleges,  but,  fortunately,  the  attendant  de- 
pression is  soon  overcome  in  the  active  and 
healthy.  The  morbid  minority  alone  reaching 
the  depths  of  melancholia  and  final  suicide. 

Later,  and  far  less  frequent  motives,  are  mor- 
tification for  rejected  love  and  jealousy.  Such 
feelings  are  often  intense  as  the  sexes  approach 
adult  age,  but  threats  to  end  life  in  consequence, 
though  frequently  made  are  rarely  executed. 

Imitation  is  another  inducement  which  is 
often  active,  so  much  so  that  prohibition  of  the 
publication  of  the  details  of  suicides  has  been 
advocated  in  order  to  avoid  the  risk  of  sugges- 


THE   FAULTS   OF  ADOLESCENCE  1 33 

tion,  and  it  is  well  never  to  discuss  this  subject 
in  the  hearing  of  children. 

Of  predisposing  causes,  mental  disorders  are 
prominent,  and  while  often  unrecognized — for 
they  are  difficult  to  detect  in  children — certainly 
increase  susceptibility  to  the  influence  of  the 
different  motives.  For  the  toiling  class  a  city 
life  with  its  too  rapid  and  unnatural  devel- 
opment, poverty,  hard  treatment,  scarcity  of 
food,  unhealthy  and  depressing  surroundings 
and  child  labor  are  favoring  factors;  just  as 
in  the  foolish  rich  are  too  great  ease  and  lux- 
ury, and  too  much  indulgence  in  exciting  pas- 
times which  overshadow  and  destroy  pleasure 
in  simple  things  and  produce  selfishness  and 
premature  weariness  of  living.  In  the  men- 
tally morbid,  school  life  with  its  intellectual 
forcing,  monotony,  fear  and  uncertainty  as  to 
the  results  of  examinations  and  dread  of  pun- 
ishment in  case  of  failure  may  sometimes  be 
predisposing    conditions. 

Children  often  do  not  realize  the  true 
meaning  of  death  and  have  beautiful  fancies 
in  connection  with  a  future  life.  They  fre- 
quently think  of  how  they  would  feel  or  appear 
when  dead  and  may  plan  suicide  or  go  so  far 


134  THE   ADOLESCENT  PEEIOD 

as  to  test  hanging  or  some  other  lethal  method 
to  experience  the  sensations  of  approaching 
death.  These  thoughts  are  most  intense 
shortly  after  puberty  and  disappear  later, 
and,  although  general  enough  to  be  almost 
normal,  may  in  the  morbid  or  mentally 
disordered  end  in  self-destruction.  They  also 
accentuate  the  importance  of  avoiding  pre- 
cocity. A  child  should  lead  a  normal,  childish 
life  and  not  assume  the  cares,  vanities  or  pleas- 
ures of  adults  and  so  tax  undeveloped  powers. 
Parents  can  do  much  to  minimize  predis- 
positions and  to  remove  the  incentives  to 
suicide  by  watchful  care  and  study  of  their 
children,  and  by  making  sure  that  their  lives 
are  normal  mentally  and  physically.  In  every 
home  there  should  be  the  "Children's  Hour." 
Not  the  stiff  tea  time  with  strangers  present, 
when  children  are  taught  to  make  their  cour- 
tesies and  recite  verses,  but  a  relaxed  free  hour 
giving  them  an  opportunity  of  confiding  to  a 
sympathetic  parent  any  trouble  or  experi- 
ence. Too  many  children,  left  alone  with 
nurses  whose  nerves  frequently  become  over- 
wrought, are  deprived  of  this  hour  because  of 
the  mother's  social  and  the  father's  business 


THE  FAULTS  OF  ADOLESCENCE      135 

engagements,  and  are  thoughtlessly  sent  with 
pent-up  longings  or  unanswered  questions  to 
their  darkened  rooms  to  bed. 

The  school,  too,  should  protect  the  young 
from  worries,  mortifications  and  excessive  am- 
bition, otherwise  it  may  do  much  harm. 

Improvidence. — After  the  fifteenth  or  six- 
teenth year  boys  are  apt  to  show  irresponsi- 
bility to  parents  and  evince  a  great  longing  for 
an  independent  life,  and  with  few  exceptions 
are  very  improvident.  If  a  wage  earner,  he 
disregards  or  never  thinks  that  a  less  prosper- 
ous time  may  be  in  store  for  him  and  spends  all 
his  pay  in  dress,  amusements  or  dissipation, 
at  a  time  when  he  should  be  thrifty  and  lay 
the  foundation  for  future  ease  and  comfort. 
With  well-to-do  boys,  both  at  home  and  at 
school,  money  comes  so  easily  for  necessities 
and  pleasures  that  they  rarely  learn  its  value, 
become  progressively  wasteful,  demand  more 
and  more  and  still  run  into  debt,  and  never 
realize  that  a  day  of  scarcity  may  come.  Of 
course  parents  are  responsible  for  this  state  of 
affairs,  partly  through  carelessness  and  partly 
by  their  natural  inclination  to  gratify  the  often 
very  innocent  desires  of  their  children,  only  to 


136  THE   ADOLESCENT  PERIOD 

feel  later  regret  for  their  indulgence.  A  boy 
should  be  provided  with  all  essentials  and, 
when  the  parents  can  afford  it,  given  a  mod- 
erate allowance  to  cover  the  costs  of  athletics 
and  amusements.  If  he  find  this  insufficient 
to  procure  everything  he  wishes,  he  must  never 
be  allowed  to  run  a  charge  account  but  should 
deny  himself  in  some  ways  and  keep  his  money 
to  pay  cash  for  the  things  he  most  wants. 
Beyond  the  regular  allowance  nothing  should 
be  given  except  as  a  reward  for  a  task  well 
done  or  for  especially  good  conduct. 

Boarding-schools  dealing  with  boys  from 
twelve  or  thirteen  upward  have  an  unusual 
opportunity  for  rudimentary  financial  training, 
which  they  generally  seem  to  neglect.  To 
suggest  a  plan:  First,  each  boy  should  have 
deposited  with  the  school  a  sufficient  sum  of 
money  to  cover,  for  the  term  or  year,  his  ath- 
letic requirements,  balls,  racquets,  sweaters 
and  so  on.  Secondly,  cash  payments  must  be 
the  fixed  rule.  When  he  buys,  the  boy,  having 
been  provided  with  a  book  of  checks  and  stubs, 
draws  a  regular  check  against  his  deposit  for 
the  price  of  the  selected  article,  enters  the 
amount  on  the  stub  and  subtracts  from  the 


THE  FAULTS  OF  ADOLESCENCE      137 

deposit  sum,  presents  his  check  in  payment 
for  his  purchase  and  receives  a  receipt.  When 
the  totals  of  the  amounts  drawn  are  equal  to 
the  original  deposit  he  must  stop  buying  unless, 
of  course,  his  account  be  replenished  from  the 
home  source.  A  small  monthly  allowance  of 
pocket  money  for  current  use  should  be  given 
in  addition  to  and  separate  from  this  checking 
fund.  Such  a  method  would  teach  the  mean- 
ing of  a  bank  account,  the  nature  of  a  check 
and  how  to  write  one,  and  the  necessity  of  a 
receipt.  It  would  also  be  a  training  in  cash 
payment — a  matter  of  very  great  importance — 
and  in  economy,  for  should  he  purchase  for  the 
pleasure  of  spending  there  is  soon  no  money 
left  and  he  must  do  without.  Again,  next  to 
actual  payment  in  coin,  it  would  give  an  idea 
of  the  value  of  money  and,  conversely  of  mate- 
rials as  measured  by  dollars  and  cents  and 
teach  care  for  things  which  now  come  so  easily 
that  their  heedless  and  extravagant  loss  causes 
only  a  little  inconvenience  but  no  real  regret. 
This  arrangement  might  necessitate  an  addi- 
tion to  the  school  staff,  and  the  consequent 
expense  and  trouble  are  the  excuses  given  for 
not  adopting  it,  but  the  increased  outlay  would 


138  THE   ADOLESCENT   PERIOD 

be  a  trifle  in  comparison  with  the  good  results 
that  might  be  confidently  expected.  As  it  is 
now,  boys  leave  school  and  college  with  the 
vaguest  notions  of  business,  sometimes  even 
unable  to  properly  write  a  check,  leaving  be- 
hind a  mass  of  bills,  almost  believing  that  to 
"charge"  a  thing  is  to  pay  for  it,  and  woefully 
extravagant  and  careless  in  money  matters 
and  unable  to  account  for  the  expenditure  of 
a  worse  than  wasted  allowance. 

While  on  this  subject  there  is  another  school 
fault,  already  intimated,  which  is  in  great  need 
of  reformation  as  it  is  both  hard  on  the  pupils 
and  a  direct  destroyer  of  thrift;  namely,  the 
encouragement  of  borrowing — without  insist- 
ing upon  returning — clothing  and  other  per- 
sonal belongings.  This  habit  once  formed  is 
very  difficult  to  break,  and  may  be  so  continu- 
ous that  the  boy  when  he  reaches  manhood  has 
no  conception  of  property  rights  and  becomes 
a  nuisance  to  his  friends  who  grow  tired  of  lend- 
ing and  losing.  It  is  very  well  to  encourage 
generosity,  but  in  this  instance  the  quality 
belongs  rather  to  the  parents  who  supply,  than 
to  the  boys  who  lend  what  they  value  little,  it 
being  so  easy  to  ask  at  home  and  obtain  more. 


THE   FAULTS   OF   ADOLESCENCE  1 39 

Parents  and  teachers  are  in  a  marked  degree 
responsible  for  the  faults  of  children.  To  cor- 
rect them  the  child's  conscience  must  be  roused 
to  action  by  judicious  scolding,  when  required, 
and  with  such  punishments  as  the  withholding 
of  something  urgently  longed  for.  At  the  same 
time  good  conduct  must  be  recognized  and 
rewarded.  A  sense  of  justice  should  be  culti- 
vated, even  in  play,  to  the  exclusion  of  selfish 
desires  and  interests;  together  with  benevo- 
lence, a  wish  to  do  good  and  give  pleasure  to 
others  and,  more  than  all,  truthfulness.  The 
recognition  of  property  rights  and  of  the  value 
of  money  has  been  already  referred  to,  but  it 
may  be  added  that  the  evils  of  "charging  to 
the  home  account"  cannot  be  too  early  taught 
and  the  rule  established  of  never  purchasing 
unless  there  be  money  in  hand  to  pay.  Teach- 
ers can  do  much  by  insisting  on  systematic 
work,  while  they  see  that  tasks  are  neither 
excessive  nor  monotonous.  They  must  under- 
stand that  one  immoral  pupil  will  surely  and 
quickly  lower  the  general  standard  of  a  school 
and  they  must  be  watchful — and  see  to  it — 
that  any  such  contaminating  influence  is 
promptly  removed. 


CHAPTER  V 
MENSTRUATION 

The  menstrual  flow  is  the  result  of  a  period- 
ical preparation  of  the  cavity  of  the  womb  for 
the  reception  and  retention  of  an  impregnated 
ovum.  In  it  both  the  uterus  and  ovaries  take 
part,  the  former — especially  its  lining  mem- 
brane— being  subject  to  marked  congestion 
which,  in  the  absence  of  impregnation,  culmi- 
nates in  an  outflow  of  blood  from  the  vessels 
into  the  uterine  cavity  from  whence  it  finds 
its  way  to  the  exterior.  Normally  the  process 
is  repeated  every  twenty-eight  days.  Of  this 
period  there  are  four  days  of  congestion  of  the 
uterine  mucosa,  four  days  of  menstrual  flow, 
seven  days  of  reconstruction  of  the  lining  mem- 
brane, and  twelve  days  of  rest.  A  great  part 
of  every  woman's  reproductive  life  is,  therefore, 
occupied  in  menstruating.  All  her  acts,  opin- 
ions and  even  criminal  tendencies  must  be 
estimated  by  their  time  association  with  it,  and, 
so  long  as  the  function  continues,  it  is  often 

140 


MENSTRUATION  141 

difficult  for  her  to  successfully  fulfill  duties  and 
obligations  requiring  constant  application. 

Just  before  the  flow  begins  the  body  tem- 
perature rises  slightly,  the  frequency  of  the 
pulse  and  arterial  pressure  increase,  and  all 
diminish  after  it  is  over.  Coincidently  the 
thyroid  gland  enlarges;  the  mammary  glands 
become  swollen  and  tender;  the  lower  eye-lids 
and  the  nipple  areolae  darken;  a  pungent  per- 
sonal odor  is  developed;  the  voice  changes  in 
quality  and  grows  less  resonant;  the  nervous 
system  is  more  impressionable;  there  is  greater 
tendency  to  jealousy  and  ill-temper;  marked 
lassitude  and  mental  inertia;  depressed  spirits 
and  discontent.  There  may  also  be  fugitive 
pains;  impaired  appetite  and  disturbed  sleep; 
nausea;  sick-headache;  palpitation  of  the  heart; 
over-sensitive  skin  areas,  and  local  chills  and 
flushings.  These  manifestations  disappear  as 
the  flow  subsides,  and  when  it  is  ended  the 
woman  feels  as  if  re-created,  is  full  of  the  delight 
of  living,  energetic  with  a  feeling  of  endless 
capability,  and  at  the  very  apex  of  her  capacity 
and  attractiveness.  All  of  these  features  are 
not  present  in  every  case,  and  some  few  indi- 
viduals show  only  minor  indications  that  they 


142  THE  ADOLESCENT  PERIOD 

are  passing  through  the  catamenia  and  would 
be  unconscious  of  it  themselves  were  it  not 
for  the  bloody  discharge. 

Menstrual  periods  are  similar  to  the  blossom- 
ing and  ripening  of  fruit  in  the  vegetable  king- 
dom and  to  certain  generative  processes  in 
animals,  each  of  which  is  looked  upon  with 
complacency.  But  from  the  remote  past  to 
the  present  this  analogy  has  been  disregarded 
and,  following  the  ancient  views  that  women 
are  unclean  at  this  time  and  that  the  monthly 
discharges  serve  the  purpose  of  periodically 
clearing  the  body  of  some  contaminating  sub- 
stance, the  menses  have  come  to  be  matters 
of  shame,  concealment  and  repulsion  to  the 
opposite  sex.  Woman's  acceptance  of  this 
general  verdict  inclines  them  to  hide  their 
condition,  sometimes  by  methods  that  are 
detrimental  to  sexual  health.  Such  conceal- 
ment, in  the  nature  of  things  so  often  repeated, 
has,  in  addition  to  its  hygienic  side,  an  influence 
in  lessening  honesty  and  openness  of  disposi- 
tion and  in  producing  a  habit  of  dissimulation. 
Nevertheless,  the  prejudice  is  not  altogether 
unfortunate,  as  it  suggests  retirement  and  se- 
clusion which  give  an  opportunity  for  the  rest 


MENSTRUATION  1 43 

that  is  needed  and  should  be  taken  during  the 
monthly  sickness. 

The  menstrual  flow  makes  its  first  appear- 
ance either  as  a  mere  feature  of  general  develop- 
ment, gradually  and  without  special  symptoms 
and  at  once  becoming  regular  in  its  periodicity 
or,  on  the  contrary,  is  preceded  by  nervous 
manifestations,  feverishness,  pain  and  leukor- 
rheal  discharge,  and  is  repeated  at  irregular 
intervals  of  two,  three  or  more  months  to 
slowly  become  thoroughly  and  normally  es- 
tablished after  a  year  or  longer.  In  the  United 
States  girls  begin  to  menstruate  at  about  the 
age  of  thirteen  or  fourteen,  being  a  year  or  more 
in  advance  of  European  races  from  whom  they 
descend.  The  climate  of  the  different  parts  of 
this  country,  parentage  and  social  position 
seem  to  exert  little  influence  and  there  is  no 
very  great  individual  variation,  although  blond, 
large  and  physically  lax  girls  mature  before 
brunettes  and  those  who  may  be  strong.  This 
precocity  in  Americans  seems  to  be  independ- 
ent of  external  conditions,  and  is  probably  due 
to  more  general  and  broader  mental  cultiva- 
tion and  greater  nervous  strain. 

The  first  menstruation  frequently  comes  to 


144  THE   ADOLESCENT  PERIOD 

the  uninstructed  girl  as  a  shock.  In  her  ignor- 
ance she  is  surprised  and  frightened  by  the 
hemorrhage,  thinks  that  she  has  been  injured 
in  some  way  and  may  try  to  staunch  the  bleed- 
ing by  cold  applications.  After  it,  her  whole 
disposition  changes.  She  gives  up  childish 
plays;  becomes  more  modest  and  quiet;  in- 
clined to  solitude  and  meditation;  grows  more 
imaginative;  has  alternating  high  and  low 
spirits;  pays  greater  attention  to  dress  and 
personal  appearance;  begins  to  be  attracted  by 
men  but  is  shy  and  reserved  in  their  presence; 
is  more  sensitive,  and  is  concerned  and  thought- 
ful about  the  important  systemic  changes  that 
are  taking  place.  Often,  too,  there  are  ill- 
defined  symptoms  hinting  at  mental  or  physical 
diseases,  though  these  usually  disappear,  and 
a  healthy  balance  is  established  when  exercise 
and  rest  are  duly  proportioned  to  meet  the 
associated  general  weakness. 

The  effect  of  the  initial  menstruation  upon 
the  nervous  system  is  much  more  marked  than 
later  ones,  after  the  function  is  regularly  es- 
tablished, although  each  succeeding  period  has 
its  influence.  With  the  former  the  disturb- 
ances are  often  violent,  even  to  hysteria  or 


MENSTRUATION  1 45 

mental  unbalance,  and  this  continues  when  the 
periods,  as  they  are  apt  to  do  in  the  beginning, 
occur  so  irregularly  as  once  in  several  months 
to  a  year  or  more.  In  these  instances,  after 
the  first  flow  such  premonitory  symptoms  as 
headache,  weeping,  lassitude  and  malaise  are 
prone  to  return  with  the  passing  of  each  month 
irrespective  of  any  discharge. 

Should  the  girl  be  constitutionally  nervous, 
the  precedent  features  are  intensified.  At  the 
beginning  of  the  first  flow  any  decided  impres- 
sion may  bring  about  an  attack  of  hysteria, 
and  if  from  any  cause  the  process  be  arrested 
all  the  ordinary  attendant  symptoms  are  ex- 
aggerated. The  girl  becomes  terror  stricken, 
fancies  she  has  some  dangerous  disease,  and  has 
such  hysterical  manifestations  as  prolonged 
causeless  crying  or  laughing  and  globus  hys- 
tericus. She  may  have  "fainting  fits,"  epi- 
leptiform in  character,  in  which  she  falls  with 
a  cry,  has  slight  muscular  spasms,  set  eyes  and 
a  quick  pulse.  These  seizures  last  only  a  short 
time,  are  not  followed  by  sleep  and  after  them 
the  health  may  be  as  usual  until  the  next 
period.  Again,  on  account  of  intimate  sym- 
pathy between  the  brain  and  the  sex  organs, 


146  THE   ADOLESCENT  PERIOD 

disturbances  of  the  mind,  sexual  excitement, 
melancholia,  delusions  and  impulses  to  violence 
may  result  from  menstrual  arrest  or  excess, 
and,  like  bleeding  from  the  nose  or  stomach, 
may  appear  vicariously,  or  in  the  place  of  and 
at  the  time  the  flow  should  occur. 

Naturally  with  the  entirely  unprepared  the 
nervous  phenomena  are  most  marked,  and  this 
is  the  case  also  when  organic  diseases — cardiac, 
pulmonary  or  other — are  present.  Conversely, 
the  appearance  of  the  function  may  be  fol- 
lowed by  improvement  in  certain  pre-existing 
nerve  conditions — chorea  and  some  forms  of 
mental  morbidity,  for  instance. 

When  one  considers  that  the  menstrual 
process  involves  all  the  organs  of  generation, 
uterus,  ovaries  and  Fallopian  tubes  being 
greatly  congested,  the  thyroid  gland  and 
breasts  swollen,  and  a  quantity  of  liquid  or 
clotted  venous  blood  discharged,  it  is  no  wonder 
that  the  first  experience  is  a  severe  shock  to  an 
unexpectant  girl  and  that  it  may  start  a  train 
of  nervous  symptoms,  to  be  repeated  at  each 
succeeding  period.  Consequently,  it  is  im- 
perative that  every  girl  approaching  puberty 
should  be  prepared  for  what  she  must  expect 


MENSTRUATION  1 47 

and  be  assured  of  the  absolute  normality  of 
the  occurrence.  Further,  if  possible,  she  should 
be  supported  through  the  initial  trial  by  her 
mother  or  some  judicious  and  sympathetic 
older  friend. 

Even  knowing  what  is  to  happen,  the  girl 
still  needs  guidance  after  the  event.  For  four 
or  more  days  of  each  month  during  her  sexual 
life  she  will  be  subject  to  the  hemorrhage  with 
its  attendant  depression,  lassitude  and  sus- 
ceptibility to  bodily  and  mental  strain,  and 
she  must  adopt  a  proper  regimen,  part  of 
which  she  can  be  taught  but  much  she  must 
learn  for  herself. 

First  of  all,  any  sense  of  shame  connected 
with  the  function  must  be  overcome.  Rather 
should  it  be  regarded  as  something  to  be  re- 
vered and  important,  warranting  a  few  days' 
seclusion  every  four  weeks,  at  least  until  regu- 
larity is  established.  During  her  first  period 
the  girl  must  rest  in  bed  until  the  hemorrhage  is 
completely  over.  Subsequently,  at  least  three 
days  should  be  passed  in  bed,  and  two  to  four 
more  idling  about  her  room,  dressed  but  most 
of  the  time  flat  on  a  lounge.  Her  food  should 
be  simple,  non-stimulating,  vegetables  freely, 


148  THE   ADOLESCENT  PERIOD 

little  meat  and  plenty  of  cool  water.  Regular 
action  of  the  bowels  must  be  maintained  and 
for  this  purpose  mild  salines  may  be  used  if 
necessary.  If  there  be  pelvic  pain,  it  may  be 
relieved  by  hot  applications  externally,  but 
never  by  the  administration  of  anodynes  with- 
out professional  sanction.  With  the  bodily, 
there  must  be  mental  rest  with  freedom  from 
anxiety  and  worry,  and  while  mildly  interesting 
reading,  fancy  work  or  other  unfatiguing  oc- 
cupation may  be  allowed,  the  mind  must  not 
be  taxed  by  exciting  novels  or  intricate  hand 
work.  Should  the  occurrence  of  the  period 
interfere  with  an  excursion,  dance  or  other 
'active  amusement,  no  amount  of  persuasion 
on  the  girl's  part  should  abridge  the  days  of 
complete  rest  and,  above  all,  nothing  should 
ever  be  done  to  unduly  arrest  the  course  of  the 
discharge. 

Between  the  periods,  throughout  the  first 
year  or  two,  the  diet  should  be  substantial  and 
plain,  with  restrictions  as  to  tea,  coffee,  stimu- 
lants, pastry  and  sweets.  The  bowels  must  be 
carefully  watched  to  secure  regularity  of  action. 
Exercise  must  be  moderate  but  systematic  and 
taken  as  much  as  possible  in  the  open  air. 


MENSTRUATION  1 49 

Sleep  should  be  regular  and  long  and  in  a  well- 
ventilated,  separate  apartment.  Tight  cor- 
sets and  long,  heavy  skirts  and  boots  with 
high  heels  must  be  avoided,  and  the  clothing 
must  be  light,  warm  and  comfortable.  A  ban, 
too,  should  be  placed  on  late  entertainments 
and  over-study — as  to  which,  as  a  rule,  teachers 
are  poor  judges — exciting  plays  or  reading,  and 
the  more  violent  of  the  sports  that  belong 
essentially  to  boys. 

Later  in  life,  when  the  periods  are  regularly 
established,  the  young  woman,  if  thoughtful, 
learns  by  experience  the  importance  of  the 
function  to  her  health,  as  well  as  many  details 
of  regimen  applicable  to  her  own  case,  and  can 
be  trusted  to  reasonably  look  after  her  own 
welfare. 

Finally,  all  who  have  the  care  of  girls  must 
remember  that  menstruation  must  be  regularly 
and  in  every  way  normally  performed  to  insure 
perfect  health  of  body  and  mind. 


CHAPTER  VI 
SEXUAL  ENLIGHTENMENT 

Almost  every  author  who  has  undertaken 
this  subject  begins  with  an  apology  for  plain 
writing.  This  should  become  less  and  less 
necessary  with  the  growing  recognition  that 
sexual  matters  are  not  inherently  unclean  and 
only  become  so  through  false  modesty  or  mis- 
treatment by  the  vulgar.  Nevertheless,  the 
subject  is  difficult  to  speak  of,  and  still  more  to 
write  about,  in  such  a  manner  that  the  facts 
may  be  stated  boldly  enough  to  be  of  value 
and  yet  to  impart  no  shock.  There  should  be 
no  more  embarrassment  experienced  than  when 
one  describes  the  symptoms  of  many  diseases 
or  the  physiology  of  digestion,  and  there  will 
not  be,  when  knowledge  becomes  more  general 
and  when  those  who  are  trying  to  help  can  be 
sure  that  the  spirit  of  their  work  is  understood. 

Whether,  during  the  period  of  pubertal  de- 
velopment, children  should  be  given  instruc- 
tion in  matters  relating  to  the  sex  functions 

iso 


SEXUAL   ENLIGHTENMENT  151 

and  procreation,  or,  in  other  words,  sexual 
hygiene,  is  a  question  that  can  have  but  one 
answer.  The  subject  is  so  important  to  their 
future  physical  and  mental  health,  as  well  as 
to  their  influence  upon  home  and  companions, 
that  it  is  quite  undesirable  to  trust  to  instinct, 
or  to  a  chance  informant  or  to  answering  am- 
biguously childish  questions  as  they  arise.  On 
the  contrary,  deliberate  and  sufficiently  full 
instruction  should  be  given  to  fit  children  at 
varying  ages  to  deal,  properly,  for  themselves 
and  for  their  associates,  with  the  sexual  events 
that  naturally  come  to  all. 

Regarding  the  matter  to  be  taught,  it  must 
be  understood  that  sexual  life  has  an  objective 
and  a  subjective  side.  The  objective  includes 
the  normal  processes  involved  in  reproduction, 
the  explanation  of  which  necessarily  involves 
description  of  the  origin,  the  development  and 
birth  of  the  offspring,  and  its  subsequent  nour- 
ishment at  the  mother's  breast.  The  sub- 
jective matters  are  the  relations  between  the 
sex  acts  and  the  individual;  effects,  good  and 
bad,  of  the  sexual  impulse  and  the  dangers  of 
bad  sexual  habits  and  excesses.  Preparatory 
teaching  should  be  concerned  only  with  the 


152  THE   ADOLESCENT   PERIOD 

objective  aspects  and  the  subjective  taken  up 
later. 

There  are  various  reasons  why  sexual  en- 
lightenment is  advisable.  As  a  matter  of  use- 
ful general  information  a  child  should  not  be 
allowed  to  grow  up  in  ignorance  of  the  ob- 
jective points.  At  school  something  is  learned 
from  lessons  in  Botany  and  Biology  of  the  re- 
productive processes  as  they  occur  in  plants 
and  animals,  but  class-room  instruction  rela- 
tive to  the  human  organs  should  be  given  only 
to  advanced  pupils,  as  it  is  much  safer  for  the 
young  to  receive  information  about  these  indi- 
vidually and  at  home. 

A  knowledge  of  the  subjective  phases  is 
even  more  important.  On  the  score  of  health, 
unexaggerated  warnings  must  be  given  of  the 
dangers  of  certain  sexual  habits.  In  the  case 
of  a  boy  especially,  a  plain  statement  should  be 
made  of  the  ill-effects,  both  upon  himself  and  his 
future  wife  and  children,  of  the  diseases  com- 
monly resulting  from  illegitimate  sex  relations. 
Concerning  menstruation  and  involuntary  sex- 
ual orgasms,  occurrences  which — though  per- 
fectly normal  at  puberty — are  prone  to  arouse 
curiosity  and  cause  great  anxiety,  every  matur- 


SEXUAL  ENLIGHTENMENT  1 53 

ing  child  should  be  informed.  Failure  to  do 
this  is  not  alone  cruel  but  may  lead  to  serious 
nervous  conditions.  It  is  easy  to  picture  the 
mental  disturbance  of  a  totally  unprepared 
girl  when  she  is  surprised  by  the  monthly 
hemorrhage,  or  of  a  boy,  under  similar  cir- 
cumstances, when  he  has  his  first  nocturnal 
emission. 

For  truth's  sake,  the  frequent  questions  of 
children  as  to  the  origin  of  babies  must  not  be 
too  long  answered  by  the  stork  fable  or  other 
ambiguity,  lest  the  child,  learning  the  facts 
from  accidental  sources  and  often  in  coarse 
and  morally  dangerous  language,  should  come 
to  distrust  its  parents,  having  been  patently 
and  purposely  deceived.  It  is  quite  as  easy 
and  much  more  truthful  to  say  that  a  baby 
grows  within  its  mother  just  as  an  apple  grows 
upon  a  tree,  and  to  call  attention  to  the  beauty 
of  the  thought  that  she  has  the  care  of  it  from 
the  beginning.  Later  the  process  of  repro- 
duction may  be  more  fully  explained — for 
illustration — by  the  statement  that  as  the 
pollen  of  a  male  blossom  is  wafted  by  the 
wind  or  carried  by  a  bee  to  unite  with  the 
female  element  in  another  bloom  and  originate 


154  THE   ADOLESCENT   PERIOD 

the  fruit,  so,  though  more  directly,  the  germinal 
cells  of  man  and  woman  meet  to  create  a  new 
human  life  which,  in  a  provided  nest  within 
the  mother,  slowly  develops  into  a  baby  and 
comes  into  the  world  after  an  appointed  period. 
This  outline,  of  course,  is  merely  suggestive, 
and  as  the  child  becomes  older  further  and 
more  accurate  details  are  demanded  and  short 
selected  readings  in  anatomy  and  physiology 
can  be  often  safely  recommended. 

Finally  no  argument  need  be  made  for  the 
prudence  of  informing  girls  of  the  ostracism  that 
may  be  uniformly  expected  to  follow  illegiti- 
mate sexual  intercourse  and  impregnation  out 
of  wedlock.  Proper  instruction  will  unques- 
tionably often  go  a  long  way  in  defending 
chastity,  but  the  teaching  must  not  consist 
merely  in  giving  advice,  it  must  be  general 
and  so  communicated  that  the  facts  become, 
as  it  were,  an  intimate  part  of  the  girl's  being. 
Somewhat  analogous,  too,  is  the  information 
that  should  be  imparted  equally  to  young  men 
and  women  in  relation  to  proper  sexual  behav- 
ior and  what  is  to  be  expected  after  marriage. 

The  time  for  enlightenment  is  by  no  means 
fixed.    The  process  of  pubertal  development 


SEXUAL   ENLIGHTENMENT  1 55 

commences  early  in  life  and  is  very  prolonged, 
and  indications  of  its  beginning  often  appear 
long  before  the  ordinarily  accepted  evidences 
of  nubility.  These  indications  are,  in  the 
main,  psychosexual  in  character  and  may  arise 
as  early  as  the  fifth  year,  though  they  are  more 
usual  at  the  age  of  eight  or  ten.  They  are  dis- 
played in  the  ardent  love  which  the  little  boy 
or  girl  shows  for  some  one  of  the  same  or  op- 
posite sex,  either  of  about  equal  age  or,  more 
frequently,  somewhat  older.  Sometimes  one 
may  observe  marked  alteration  in  mood,  from 
joyousness  and  vivacity  to  sadness  and  de- 
pression, depending  upon  the  presence  or 
absence  of  the  object  of  affection,  and  now, 
also,  the  attraction  of  beauty  and  charm  begin 
to  be  reciprocal.  Manifestations  of  this  nature 
may  be  entirely  unconnected  with  excitation 
of  the  peripheral  sexual  organs  and  their  sig- 
nificance is  unrecognized  on  the  part  of  the 
child,  though  they,  nevertheless,  show  the 
earliest  stirrings  of  the  sexual  impulse  and 
indicate  the  necessity  of  beginning  sexual 
education. 

Once  started,  the  activity  of  this  impulse 
becomes   more   and    more    apparent   as   age 


156  THE   ADOLESCENT  PERIOD 

advances,  the  increase  being  sometimes  uni- 
form and  gradual  but  often  irregular  and  with 
varying  accentuation  of  two  factors,  each  sup- 
plying features  sufficiently  marked  to  estab- 
lish the  need  of  additional  instruction  from 
time  to  time.  There  are  first — those  already 
mentioned  as  of  early  occurrence — the  psych- 
ical evidences  of  the  subtle  attraction  of  the 
female  for  the  male  and  the  reverse,  with  a 
desire  for  intimate  bodily  and  mental  approxi- 
mation to  the  beloved.  Secondly,  and  usually 
of  later  development,  physical  processes  con- 
nected with  the  peripheral  sexual  organs,  tend- 
ing to  the  reduction  of  active  congestive  condi- 
tions. However,  during  the  period  of  gradual 
progression  toward  puberty  it  is  essential  to 
guard  against  magnifying  trifling  manifesta- 
tions and  attributing  every  developmental 
change  to  sexuality.  There  can  be  little  worse 
in  parents  than  a  sexual  obsession,  which  classes 
every  exhibition  of  natural  affection,  every 
fancy  or  innocent  kiss  to  passion  and  make  of 
these  a  source  of  injurious  nagging  and  of 
active  suggestion  to  their  child. 

The  age,  therefore,  for  commencing  enlight- 
enment must  be  established  by  intelligent  and 


SEXUAL  ENLIGHTENMENT  1 57 

reserved  observations  of  each  child  to  deter- 
mine the  beginning  of  sexual  feelings  and 
thoughts.  Sometimes  it  may  be  inaugurated 
almost  with  the  first  puerile  question  on  the 
subject.  But,  to  give  some  guide,  the  biology 
and  physiology  of  reproduction  may  be  out- 
lined early,  at  from  seven  to  eight  years  for 
instance.  Preparation  for  the  occurrence  of 
menstruation  and  spontaneous  emissions,  with 
cautions  against  pervert  habits  should  be  given 
at  about  thirteen  or  fourteen,  and  a  description 
of  the  dangers  of  venereal  diseases  and  of 
seduction  and  prostitution  at  the  age  of  eight- 
een. Generally  girls  require  instruction  at  a 
somewhat  earlier  age  than  boys,  and,  naturally, 
irrespective  of  years  more  details  may  be  given 
to  some  children  than  to  others,  though  the 
question  of  how  much  to  tell  and  the  way  of 
telling  must  always  be  decided  by  the  tact  and 
judgment  of  the  instructor.  The  adherence  to 
any  set  formula  is  often  worse  than  no  teaching 
whatever. 

The  source  of  enlightenment  may  next  be 
considered,  and  here  it  must  be  realized  that 
the  one  object  is  to  anticipate  by  clean  and 
serious  instruction — either  at  school  or  in  the 


158  THE  ADOLESCENT   PERIOD 

home — the  casual  knowledge  that  children- 
acquire  in  a  manner  which  is  generally  super- 
ficial and  coarse  if  not  actually  obscene.  A 
school-master  may  appropriately  originate  sex- 
ual education  by  explaining  to  a  class  of  pupils 
of  seven  or  eight  years  old  and  of  the  same  sex, 
the  biological  processes  of  plants  and  the  lower 
animals  with  the  aid  of  illustrations  and  as  a 
part  of  a  natural  science  course.  Further,  a 
school  physician,  may,  with  advantage  sepa- 
rately warn  boys  and  girls  of  sixteen  or  eight- 
een, when  they  are  about  to  leave  school,  of  the 
dangers  of  illegitimate  sexual  relations.  On 
the  other  hand,  explanatory  lectures  upon  the 
subjective  processes  of  sexual  life  for  younger 
children — twelve  or  thirteen — should  not  be 
undertaken  at  school  because  the  teachings 
then  require  close  study  of  the  individual 
and  the  gaining  of  his  or  her  absolute  con- 
fidence; two  obligations  that  cannot  be  met 
in  school  on  account  of  the  numbers  involved 
and  the  time  devoted  to  other  subjects.  Teach- 
ers, too,  must  always  labor  under  the  disad- 
vantage of  having  to  create  occasions,  whereas 
one  who  thoroughly  knows  a  child  and  is  its 
confidant,  finds  the  easiest  and  best  oppor- 


SEXUAL   ENLIGHTENMENT  159 

tunities  for  instruction  in  answering  questions 
or  explaining  occurrences  as  they  naturally 
arise. 

Those  who  undertake  this  branch  of  educa- 
tion should  have,  in  addition  to  intelligence 
and  a  knowledge  of  sex  matters,  the  ability  to 
elucidate  these  matters  at  the  right  moment 
and  in  the  right  way.  They  should  know  to 
what  extent  a  particular  child's  rather  broadly 
extended  and  ill-defined  affections  have  special- 
ized— that  is,  how  far  its  amatory  thoughts 
and  feelings  are  aroused  by  some  one  person — 
and  also  to  what  degree  its  special  organs  have 
undergone  characteristic  development. 

The  psychosexual  features  and  growth  con- 
ditions are  best  appreciated  and  explained  by 
the  mother,  provided  she  take  her  position 
seriously,  and  next  by  the  father,  especially 
for  boys  advancing  in  age,  and  then  by  an 
older  near  relation,  confidential  friend  or 
physician.  In  other  words,  most  of  sexual  edu- 
cation should  be  done  at  home.  The  chosen 
one  of  these  mentors  must  already  have,  or 
must  win,  the  entire  trust  of  the  child  to  secure 
its  fearless  frankness,  to  do  away  with  false 
shame  and  to  insure  its  receiving,  as  true,  the 


l6o  THE   ADOLESCENT   PERIOD 

statements  that  may  be  made,  instead  of  think- 
ing that  it  is  being  put  off  by  evasive  phrases 
which,  by  the  way,  even  young  children 
readily  analyze  and  accept  at  their  real  value. 
In  this  connection,  too,  a  child's  word  should 
be  taken  so  far  as  possible,  since  any  unwar- 
ranted disbelief  or  an  accusation  of  lying  are 
sure  bars  to  further  trust  and  confidences. 

Advice  as  to  the  language  to  be  used  cannot 
be  given  as  each  case  requires  separate  study 
and  management,  but  the  right  and  simple 
words  will  come  to  one  who  has  a  delicate  dis- 
crimination, who  loves  children,  and  has  a  real 
interest  in  their  welfare.  Given  a  good  op- 
portunity, care,  tact,  consideration  of  the 
capacity  for  understanding  and  a  method  that 
appeals  to  the  intelligence,  there  can  be  no 
doubt  that  a  sufficiently  full  description  of  all 
natural  processes  can  be  accomplished  without 
harming  morals,  rousing  a  sense  of  shame,  or 
giving  the  idea  that  sexual  subjects  are  in  any 
way  unclean.  When  the  proper  person  cannot 
be  found,  efforts  at  enlightenment  do  more 
harm  than  good  and  it  is  better  to  let  the  child 
pick  up  the  usual  gross  knowledge  of  the 
school  or  streets. 


SEXUAL  ENLIGHTENMENT  l6l 

After  this  general  consideration  the  facts  to 
be  made  clear  may  be  taken  up  in  more  detail, 
as  follows: 

Protoplasm  the  biological  element  that — 
under  proper  conditions — develops  into  organic 
life  is  strikingly  represented  in  the  reproductive 
germs  of  the  human  male  and  female,  while 
in  the  sexual  organs  producing  them,  vitality 
exhibits  its  greatest  activity  and  carries  out 
its  fundamental  purpose,  which  is  the  continu- 
ance of  the  race.  The  sex  organs  insure  the 
necessary  conjunction  of  the  male  and  female 
germs  with  much  more  certainty  than  occurs, 
for  example,  with  the  pollen  of  fruit-blossoms 
or  flowers. 

The  peripheral  sexual  organs  vary  consider- 
ably, though  perfectly  normally,  as  to  size  and 
proportion,  and  this  diversity  is  particularly 
marked  in  boys,  and  in  them  is  often  the  cause 
of  much  anxiety  and  dread  of  deformity  or 
future  impotence.  When  the  organs  are  so  far 
developed  that  they  are  able  to  perform  their 
functions,  the  boy  or  girl  has  reached  the  age 
of  puberty.  This  stage  in  development  is 
usually  attained  about  the  fourteenth  year  in 
the  former  and  the  thirteenth  in  the  latter, 


1 62  THE  ADOLESCENT  PERIOD 

though  exceptionally  it  may  be  earlier  or  much 
later,  and  as  already  stated,  is  preceded  by  a 
long  period  of  preparatory  changes. 

The  establishment  of  puberty  is  commonly, 
and  may  be  for  convenience,  dated  from  the 
cracking  of  the  voice  and  the  first  seminal 
emission  in  boys;  the  enlargement  of  the 
breasts  and  the  initial  menstrual  flow  in  girls. 
But  it  is  important  for  the  educator  to  under- 
stand that  the  capacity  for  reproduction — true 
puberty — is  not  necessarily  acquired  coinci- 
dently  with  these  events.  On  the  contrary, 
spermatozoids,  the  essential  fecund  elements 
in  the  male  may  not  be  secreted  for  some 
time  after  the  primary  involuntary  discharge, 
and  menstruation  may  occur  months  before 
the  commencement  of  ovulation.  Further, 
while  these  manifestations  do  not  always 
mark  the  completion  of  pubertal  develop- 
ment, neither  do  they  indicate  the  beginning 
of  sexual  life,  for,  as  mentioned  above, 
characteristic  features,  mainly  psychosexual, 
are  apparent  as  early  as  the  seventh  or  eighth 
years  of  age. 

At  puberty  the  external  virile  organ  rapidly 
increases  in  size  and  sensibility,  and  the  con- 


SEXUAL   ENLIGHTENMENT  1 63 

trolling  nerve  centres,  in  the  pelvic  sympathetic 
plexus,  become  more  irritable.  The  testicles 
grow  markedly  and  reach  the  lowest  point  in 
their  descent  from  the  abdominal  cavity  into 
the  scrotum  or  containing  sac.  Their  degree 
of  pendency,  though,  depends  upon  the  tonicity 
of  the  scrotal  muscle  wall,  which  in  turn,  is 
closely  connected  with  the  condition  of  the 
nervous  system,  general  debility  and  over- 
fatique  causing  relaxation.  The  fibres  of  this 
muscle  tissue  readily  contract  under  the  in- 
fluence of  external  stimulation,  and  at  puberty 
the  area  of  surface  over  which  this  "scrotal 
reflex  "  can  be  excited  is  much  widened.  Now, 
also,  certain  involuntary  motor  waves  take 
place  in  the  wall,  which,  like  intestinal  peris- 
talsis, propel  the  testicular  secretions  toward 
provided  reservoirs.  The  importance  of  recog- 
nizing the  normality  of  the  last  three  features 
will  be  seen  later  in  discussing  certain  anxiety 
conditions  in  adolescent  boys,  and  the  same 
may  be  said  of  the  abnormal  but  transitory 
swelling  of  the  scrotal  veins — varicocele — that 
is  quite  common  when  the  testicles  have  at- 
tained their  growth,  and  is  due  to  the  upright 


164  THE   ADOLESCENT   PERIOD 

position  and  the  drag  of  the  glands  causing 
venous  stasus  and  distension. 

All  these  structural  changes  are  of  secondary 
moment  to  the  one  essential  quality  of  nubility, 
that  is,  production  of  spermatozoids  by  the 
testes  and  their  ejaculation  with  the  semen 
which  is  a  composite  liquid  made  up  of  the 
secretions  not  only  of  the  testicles  but  of  the 
prostate  and  other  accessory  glands.  As  this 
fluid  begins  to  be  secreted  and  to  accumulate 
in  the  receiving  pouches  there  comes  a  time, 
usually  during  sleep,  when  it  is  naturally  ex- 
pelled by  the  ejaculating  muscles.  Though 
perfectly  normal,  this  first  involuntary  sexual 
orgasm  is  always  a  new  and  strange  experience, 
and  with  its  associated  psychical  and  physical 
phenomena  is  quite  sufficient  to  alarm  any 
sensitive  youth  who  has  not  been  prepared  for 
the  event.  Subsequently  emissions  recur,  with 
varying  frequency  in  different  individuals, 
though  generally  at  intervals  of  about  two 
weeks.  Their  usual  time  of  occurrence  is  in 
the  deep  sleep  of  early  morning  when,  perhaps, 
the  warmth  of  the  bed  or  a  distended  bladder 
stimulates  the  nerve  centres.  Normally  they 
take  place  spontaneously  and  are  attended  by 


SEXUAL  ENLIGHTENMENT  1 65 

dreams  that  rehearse  the  psychosexual  tenden- 
cies of  daily  life  and  continue  until  wakefulness 
comes  with  ejaculation  and  its  acute  sensations. 
After  them,  in  health,  there  is  a  feeling  of 
relaxation  and  relief,  and  later,  up  to  the  time 
of  the  next  crisis,  a  sense  of  increasing  vigor 
and  vitality.  Conversely,  in  the  case  of  sick- 
ness, over-work  or  loss  of  sleep  they  are  fol- 
lowed by  temporary  fatigue  and  occur  at  longer 
intervals. 

In  the  female  the  genitalia  are  mostly  within 
the  pelvic  cavity.  At  puberty  they  rapidly 
increase  in  bulk,  their  blood  supply  augments 
and  the  controlling  nerve  centres  grow  more 
susceptible  to  stimulation.  At  the  same  time 
the  breasts  which  are  in  close  sympathy  with 
them,  and  which  up  to  the  seventh  year  are 
little  different  from  the  same  glands  in  boys, 
begin  to  enlarge.  These  features,  however, 
are  of  little  value  in  establishing  the  full  de- 
velopment of  puberty  without  the  appearance 
of  the  menstrual  flow.  This  may  be  generally 
accepted  as  marking  the  beginning  of  ovulation, 
a  periodical  spontaneous  process  involving  the 
emergence  of  the  ovum — or  female  reproduc- 
tive  cell — from   the   ovary,   and   its  passage 


1 66  THE   ADOLESCENT   PERIOD 

through  the  Fallopian  canal  to  the  cavity  of 
the  uterus,  where  if  impregnated  it  is  retained, 
but  otherwise  is  expelled  with  the  monthly  dis- 
charges.    (See  Chapter  V.) 

Certain  parts  of  the  genital  organs  of  the 
female  like  those  of  the  opposite  sex  are  subject 
to  erectile  congestion  and  many  mature  girls 
experience  involuntary  sexual  orgasms.  These 
with  their  attending  ejaculations  have  no  direct 
connection  with  ovulation  and  the  liquid  dis- 
charged is  an  indifferent  glandular  secretion 
containing  no  vitalizing  elements.  Otherwise 
they  are  very  like  the  orgasms  of  males. 

Besides  the  above  features  both  sexes  in 
youth  show  quite  distinctive  secondary  sex 
characters  that  are  the  beginnings  of  the 
marked  differentiations  between  adult  man  and 
woman.  These  are  supposed  to  depend  upon 
special  internal  secretions  produced  in  the 
testicles  and  ovaries  which  are  entirely  inde- 
pendent of  the  vivifying  cells,  and  unlike  them 
are  not  excreted  but  are  absorbed  directly  into 
the  blood  and  play  a  part  in  sexual  develop- 
ment. Secondary  qualities  appear  earlier  in 
girls  than  in  boys,  though  during  the  first 
seven  years  of  life,  outside  of  the  genital  organs 


SEXUAL   ENLIGHTENMENT  1 67 

themselves,  there  is  little  difference  in  the  make- 
up  of  the  two  sexes.  After  this,  in  girls,  the 
lower  half  of  the  body,  receiving  an  increased 
deposition  of  fat,  commences  to  assume  the  typ- 
ical rounded  form  of  womanhood,  and  soon  the 
pelvis  and  hips  grow  broader.  Next,  the  neck 
becomes  fuller  with  lines  running  smoothly 
into  that  of  the  lower  jaw;  the  hair  grows 
longer  and  finer  and  usually  in  limited  areas 
on  the  body,  and  the  act  of  breathing  is 
superior  costal,  or  performed  more  by  move- 
ments of  the  chest  wall  than  of  the  dia- 
phragm and  abdominal  muscles. 

Psychical  secondary  characters  are  shown  by 
a  girl's  fondness  for  plays  that  imitate  the  pur- 
suits which  will  occupy  her  future  life.  She 
mothers  her  doll  and  plays  at  housekeeping; 
cooks  at  a  toy  stove;  is  interested  in  clothes  and 
articles  of  adornment,  and  is  careful  about  the 
neatness  of  her  person.  Of  purely  mental 
processes  her  ideas  of  form — squares  or  tri- 
angles— are  better  than  of  objects — plants  or 
animals;  her  memory  is  good  from  ten  to  four- 
teen but  poor  before  and  after;  her  knowledge 
and  recognition  of  colors  is  uniformly  better 
than  that  in  boys;  she  is  not  so  good  an  ob- 


1 68  THE   ADOLESCENT  PERIOD 

server,  is  apt  to  be  inaccurate  in  describing  oc- 
currences, and  swayed  by  selfish  interests  is 
more  given  to  exaggeration  and  falsehood. 

Boys,  perhaps,  retain  childish  characteristics 
longer,  yet  some  years  before  puberty  the 
shoulders  become  broader;  the  muscles  larger 
and  stronger  and,  on  account  of  scanty  fat 
accumulation,  the  figure  is  angular  with  narrow 
hips;  thin  neck;  prominent  larynx  and  appar- 
ently over-large  joints.  Later  the  voice  breaks 
and  the  beard  begins  to  appear.  The  respira- 
tory movements  are  abdominal  in  type.  Psy- 
chical characters  are  seen  in  the  preference  for 
rough  games  and  outdoor  sports  calling  for 
muscular  activity  and  strength;  in  a  tendency 
to  untidiness;  carelessness  in  dress,  and  in  love 
of  adventure  and  physical  contest.  Some 
mental  distinctions  have  been  already  men- 
tioned and  in  addition  boys  learn  less  quickly 
but  more  surely  than  girls;  are  less  shy  and 
vindictive  though  more  actively  teasing  and 
cruel  in  their  dealings  with  each  other;  have  a 
greater  sense  of  honor  and  are  more  truthful. 

Results  of  the  removal  of  the  testicles  and 
ovaries  tend  to  uphold  the  internal  secretion 
theory  of  the  production  of  secondary  sexual 


SEXUAL   ENLIGHTENMENT  1 69 

characters.  Castration  besides  causing  im- 
potence, markedly  changes  the  male  character 
making  it  either  resentful  and  suspicious,  or, 
as  in  animals,  more  docile.  Physically  it  in- 
fluences development,  narrowing  the  pelvis 
and  chest  and  making  the  bones  of  the  extremi- 
ties long,  slender  and  structurally  weak ;  checks 
the  growth  of  hair  on  the  face  and  body;  in- 
creases the  subcutaneous  fat  accumulation,  and 
prevents  the  usual  break  in  the  voice,  keeping 
it  a  permanent  soprano.  Removal  of  the 
ovaries  stops  menstruation  and  causes  atrophy 
of  the  breasts;  an  angular,  spare  form;  a  growth 
of  beard;  a  low-pitched  masculine  voice  and  a 
character  showing  many  virile  traits.  Both 
operations,  therefore,  interfere  with  the  ap- 
pearance of  the  secondary  characters,  causing 
the  male  to  be  more  like  the  female  or  the  re- 
verse and  the  effects  are  proportionate  to  the 
date  of  removal;  being  most  marked  if  per- 
formed early  in  life  before  the  production  of 
spermatozoids  or  ova,  to  which  these  characters 
were  formerly  attributed;  less  if  done  later, 
and  little  or  none  at  all  if  postponed  until  after 
the  reproductive  cells  begin  to  be  formed. 
The  impulse  to  the  sexual  act  implanted  in 


170  THE   ADOLESCENT   PERIOD 

all  from  the  commencement  of  life,  appears  in 
childhood  and  becomes  more  urgent  as  puberty 
approaches  and  though  designed  for  the  im- 
portant purpose  of  race  continuation — and  to 
be  conserved  for  this  end — is  nevertheless  too 
frequently  misused  with  the  formation  of 
habits  morally  degrading  and  dangerous  to 
health.  The  most  prevalent  of  these  is  self- 
abuse,  which  when  indulged  in  continuously 
becomes  one  of  the  most  selfish  and  repulsive 
of  vices.  Consequently  it  should  receive  the 
careful  attention  of  all  who  are  responsible  for 
the  management  and  sexual  education  of  the 
young.  These  should  handle  the  subject  dis- 
cretely, avoiding,  on  the  one  hand,  false-mod- 
est reticence  and  assumed  ignorance  of  the  con- 
duct of  children  in  this  respect,  and  on  the  other 
the  creating  of  undue  anxiety  and  nervousness 
by  exaggerating  consequences. 

The  act  of  self- abuse,  masturbation  or  auto- 
erotism is  accomplished  in  various  ways  and 
much  ingenuity  may  be  exercised  to  intensify 
sensation  and  to  avoid  detection.  The  prac- 
tice has  always  been  very  universal,  so  much 
so  that  in  boys  the  question  is  not  of  the  number 
who  have  yielded  to  temptation  with  greater 


SEXUAL   ENLIGHTENMENT  171 

or  less  frequency,  but  of  how  many  have  never 
succumbed.  Among  girls  it  is  much  less 
genera],  though,  after  forming  the  habit,  they 
are  very  disposed  to  frequent  repetitions  and 
excesses. 

Just  as  a  child  a  few  months  old  will  be  at- 
tracted by  and  scratch  an  itching  spot,  so  very 
early  in  life  the  first  act  of  auto-erotism  may  re- 
sult simply  from  an  impulse  to  relieve  indefinite 
sensations  and  without  any  sexual  consciousness 
or  any  aim  at  obtaining  voluptuous  feelings. 
The  latter  motive  comes  afterward  when  the  boy 
or  girl  has  learned  by  accident  or  seduction 
how  these  may  be  produced.  It  is  well  known, 
too,  that  such  irritants  as  a  full  bladder;  the 
presence  of  parasites  in  the  rectum;  a  narrowed 
urinary  orifice;  local  inflammatory  conditions 
and  skin  eruptions,  often  determine  a  flow  of 
blood  to  the  male  organ  even  during  early 
infancy  and  produce  these  indefinite  sensations. 
With  girl  children  similar  sensations  are  ex- 
perienced and  the  same  results  follow.  It  is 
also  a  sad  fact  that  the  act  has  been  known  to 
be  directly  taught  either  to  keep  a  child  quiet 
or  to  gratify  the  attendants  perverted  longings. 

In  older  children,  auto-erotism  is  generally 


172  THE  ADOLESCENT  PERIOD 

originated  by  seduction,  though  it  may  begin 
spontaneously  through  some  innocent  move- 
ment causing  friction  of  the  parts.  Sometimes, 
in  the  very  sanguine,  puberty  begins  with  such 
pruriency  that  the  least  accidental  excitation 
produces  a  crisis  and  the  practice  starts  before 
the  still  undeveloped  will  power  is  sufficiently 
strong  for  resistance.  As  the  time  of  maturity 
approaches,  the  process  ceases  to  be  so  purely 
mechanical,  and  originates  in,  or  becomes 
associated  with,  mental  images  of  sexual 
character. 

After  learning  the  act,  its  practice  is  so 
seductive  that  there  is  great  danger  of  repeti- 
tion at  increasingly  short  intervals  until  a 
habit  is  formed.  This,  though,  is  not  always 
the  case  for  there  are  many  who,  after  a  brief 
and  occasional  indulgence,  lack  the  impulse  to 
continue  or  have  enough  strength  of  will  to 
resist  further  temptation.  The  habit  may  be 
established  in  infancy,  when  it  is  more  common 
in  girls  than  in  boys,  but  the  danger  of  its 
formation  increases  as  childhood  advances, 
and  is  greatest  during  early  puberty.  Once 
acquired  it  is  difficult  to  overcome  and  may  be 
carried  to  great  excess  particularly  in  those 


SEXUAL  ENLIGHTENMENT  1 73 

who    are    full-blooded    or    have    a   nervous 
temperament. 

Without  further  consideration  of  the  causa- 
tion of  habitual  auto-erotism  in  infancy,  the 
practice  as  it  occurs  in  older  children  merits 
careful  attention.  The  conditions  producing 
the  initial  act  have  been  mentioned,  but  there 
are  numerous  and  various  additional  factors 
underlying  its  continuance.  The  predisposing 
influences  are  of  two  classes :  First,  those  that 
favor  congestion  and  stimulation  of  the  genital 
organs,  as  local  itching  eruptions  on  the  skin; 
hemorrhoids;  rectal  parasites;  chronic  constipa- 
tion; the  onset  of  the  menstrual  flow;  phy- 
sical indolence;  confinement  to  bed  or  chair  in 
any  protracted  convalescence,  and  over-study 
and  forcing  at  school  with  the  necessarily 
lessened  muscular  activity,  insufficiency  of 
open-air  recreations  and  long  sittings  over 
books  or  desk.  Secondly,  those  that  encour- 
age weakness  and  irritability  of  the  nervous 
system  and  interfere  with  the  development  of 
control  power,  as  relaxing  over-indulgence; 
want  of  interest  in  normal  activities  and  games 
and  sports;  idleness  and  solitude.  Heredity 
and  inherent   feebleness  of  will  also  play  a 


174  THE  ADOLESCENT  PERIOD 

part,  and  the  habit  is  often  associated  with 
hysteria,  epilepsy  and  tuberculosis,  the  last 
appearing  to  hasten  maturity  and  the  function- 
al activity  of  the  reproductive  organs. 

Indirect  exciting  conditions  are  season,  espe- 
cially Spring;  local  uncleanliness;  deferred  ris- 
ing from  bed  after  the  night's  rest  is  finished; 
undue  fondling ,  and  the  wearing  of  corsets 
sufficiently  tight  to  cause  congestion  of  the 
pelvic  region.  Direct  excitants  of  the  act  are 
a  crossed-leg  position  while  sitting;  the  use  of 
rocking  chairs  or  a  hobby  horse;  punishment 
by  spanking;  sleeping  in  feather  beds;  locally 
close-fitting  clothing,  and  trousers  with  side 
pockets,  often  over-filled  and  much  too  con- 
venient for  the  hands,  and  horse-back  or  bicycle 
riding  on  improperly  constructed  saddles. 
Still  more  active  causes  are  reading  of  improper 
books  and  the  sight  of  lewd  pictures,  and,  most 
dangerous  of  all,  the  conversation  and  exhi- 
bitions of  bad  companions. 

While  certainly  many  of  these  factors  are 
not  effective  in  the  healthy  and  well  environed, 
the  feeble  and  nervous  may  respond  to  any  or 
all  of  them.  Still,  notwithstanding  the  sus- 
ceptibility and  the  known  prevalence  of  the 


SEXUAL  ENLIGHTENMENT  175 

practice,  it  is  a  great  mistake  to  assume  lightly 
the  existence  of  the  habit.  Detection  is 
merely  a  matter  of  observation  in  infants, 
and  is  quite  simple  in  children  up  to  about 
the  eighth  year  as  they  imperfectly  conceal 
their  impulses.  The  act  itself  is  attended 
by  stimulating  manipulations  or  move- 
ments of  special  character  and  rhythm; 
breathing  is  disturbed;  the  eyes  become  bright 
and  moist;  the  face  flushes,  may  be  beaded 
with  perspiration  and  has  a  characteristic 
expression.  At  its  end  there  is  quiet  and 
relaxation.  The  observation  of  these  mani- 
festations, of  course,  leaves  no  doubt  as  to  what 
has  occurred,  but  without  them  and  in  older 
children,  who  accomplish  the  act  as  secretly  as 
possible  and  in  whom  there  is  not  yet  an  ejacu- 
lation to  stain  the  under-clothing  and  bed 
linen,  the  detection  is  much  more  difficult. 
Such  signs  as  dark  lines  under  the  eyes,  pallor, 
congestion  of  the  whites  of  the  eyes,  reddening 
of  the  parts  in  girls,  and  many  other  popularly 
held  indications  are  quite  as  valueless  in  prov- 
ing impurity  as  diligence  and  apparently  cor- 
rect conduct  in  school  and  at  church  are  in 
accurately  indicating  purity.    To  avoid  un- 


176  THE   ADOLESCENT  PERIOD 

fortunate  consequences  in  the  way  of  strained 
relations  and  broken  trust,  absolutely  no  ac- 
cusation should  be  made  until  the  child  has 
been  caught  in  the  act,  or  until  a  confession 
is  secured  by  the  mother  or  some  older  con- 
fidant. The  latter  is  a  strong  argument  for 
instruction,  for  when  children  are  uneducated 
sexually  and  never  hear  sex  matters  properly 
discussed,  or  are  led  to  look  upon  them  as 
obscene,  they  soon  learn  personal  reserve  and 
are  wanting  in  the  frankness  that  is  encouraged 
by  confidence  in  some  friendly  adviser.  Con- 
sequently they  rarely  make  confessions  on  this 
subject,  though  they  should  do  so  as  easily 
and  naturally  as  on  any  other. 

Auto-erotism  is  very  generally  and  justly 
considered  to  be  an  essentially  selfish  and 
immoral  habit,  being  inimical  to  race  perpetua- 
tion and  the  home-making  interdependence 
of  the  sexes.  Undoubtedly,  too,  the  very  ease 
of  the  act,  its  tendency  to  frequent  repetition 
and  the  necessity  for  constantly  increasing 
the  intensity  of  the  mental  and  peripheral 
excitants  make  the  vice  dangerous  to  the 
health  of  boys  particularly  and,  in  a  less  de- 
gree, of  girls.     When  practised  before  seminal 


SEXUAL  ENLIGHTENMENT  1 77 

secretion  is  established,  if  long  continued  and 
unrestricted,  if  the  crisis  be  artificially  post- 
poned and  if  there  be  an  inherited  predisposi- 
tion to  nervous  disorders,  the  physical  effects 
are  general  depression  and  languor;  the  mental, 
diminished  power  of  attention,  poor  memory 
and  dulness.  When  begun  and  carried  to 
excess  after  puberty  the  consequences  are 
general  neurasthenia,  sexual  perversions  and 
gradually  increasing  inability  to  respond  to 
normal  sexual  stimuli,  ending  sometimes  in 
impotence.  In  addition  to  being  often  estab- 
lished early  in  life  before  nerve  poise  is  ac- 
quired and  its  exercise  being  possible  without 
limitation,  the  habit  further  taxes  the  system, 
because  the  orgasm  is  unnaturally  concen- 
trated in  both  duration  and  parts  involved  and 
the  crisis  is  spasmodic  and  nerve  exhausting. 
Its  abnormality  implies  great  excitation,  which 
in  the  main  is  innate  and  lacking  in  the  usual 
slow  approach  of  normal  intercourse.  In  the 
latter,  the  special  senses — sight,  touch,  hearing 
— and  various  physical  and  psychical  accessory 
attributes  take  part.  The  confirmed  auto- 
erotism on  the  contrary,  mentally  creates  some 
erotic  picture  and  makes  imagination  assume 


178  THE   ADOLESCENT  PERIOD 

the  functions  of  the  higher  faculties,  until  fancy 
becomes  more  potent  than  reality,  a  condition 
illustrated  by  mental  mastnrbators,  a  not  un- 
common class  of  perverts. 

The  results,  however,  are  neither  so  direct 
nor  serious  as  formerly  believed,  and  so  greatly 
exaggerated  in  a  certain  class  of  publications 
advertising  wonderful  nostrums  and  made 
accessible  to  the  young  for  commercial  pur- 
poses. There  is  no  actual  slow  deterioration  of 
the  intelligence,  insanity  and  idiocy  are  not 
usual  effects,  and  there  are  no  characteristic 
changes  of  facial  expression  nor  of  bodily 
posture  branding  the  habitual  indulger.  But 
general  belief  in  and  dread  of  such  results  pro- 
duce the  timidity,  diffidence  and  seclusiveness 
so  frequently  shown  by  the  victims  of  the  habit 
and  cause  many  of  the  nervous  symptoms  they 
present.  Consciousness,  also,  of  a  degrading 
and  universally  censured  weakness  leads  to 
loss  of  self-respect  and  arouses  a  sense  of 
pollution,  and  for  very  shame  thepractice  must 
be  hidden.  So  they  grow  secretive,  morbidly 
self-conscious,  take  little  pleasure  in  life  and,  be- 
coming mentally  depressed,  may  gradually  drift 
into  melancholia.     Moreover,  a  desire  to  be 


SEXUAL  ENLIGHTENMENT  1 79 

chaste  and  efforts  at  purity  are  met  by  strong 
carnal  temptations,  and  the  struggle  is  very 
disturbing  and  wasteful  of  the  nerve  energy 
that  should  be  utilized  in  study,  healthy  play 
and  general  development.  Most  of  the  injury 
to  health,  then,  is  due  not  to  the  habit  itself 
but  to  the  anxiety  and  fear  that  comes  with  the 
knowledge  of  its  assumed  direct  results,  and 
it  is  this  dread  that  the  responsible  educator 
must  anticipate  and  allay. 

Excluding  this  element  and  its  effects,  it  is 
difficult  to  detect  any  deviations  from  health 
in  those  who  practise  auto-erotism  occasionally, 
even  if  they  continue  it  a  long  time,  neither 
does  this  degree  of  indulgence  impair  future 
marital  potency.  On  the  other  hand,  in  those 
who  abandon  themselves  to  temptation  various 
abnormal  features  do  appear,  some  of  which 
are  direct,  being  due  to  the  influence  of  the 
habit  in  restraining  physical  and  mental  de- 
velopment; others  indirect,  depending  upon  the 
taxing  fear,  and  these  combined  furnish  a 
fairly  distinct  group  of  symptoms,  some  of 
which  have  just  been  mentioned. 

The  act  itself  is  accompanied  by  a  rise  of  a 
degree  or  more  in  body  temperature  which  is 


l8o  THE   ADOLESCENT  PERIOD 

sustained  for  about  half  an  hour.  With  its 
fall  a  sense  of  weariness  and  depression  is 
experienced  and  the  skin  grows  cool  and  moist. 
If  indulgence  be  habitual  and  unrestrained  the 
general  symptoms  show  both  physical  and 
mental  depreciation,  such  as  loss  of  muscle 
tone;  a  feeble,  slow-acting  heart  and  sluggish 
circulation;  cool,  moist  hands  and  facial  pallor; 
disturbed  digestion;  headache;  over-sensitive- 
ness to  light;  poor  memory  and  decreased  power 
of  attention;  morbid  agitation  and  hypo- 
chondriasis, and  stomach  and  other  neuroses. 
Coincidently  the  personal  character  is  subject 
to  change,  becoming  sensitive,  untruthful  and 
timid,  and  there  may  be  increasing  self- 
conceit  with  want  of  sympathy  for  others 
and  lack  of  ambition,  of  perseverance  and  of 
self-control.  Compared  with  the  intense  excite- 
ment of  each  orgasm,  normal  companionship, 
simple  amusements  and  ordinary  occupations 
seem  unattractively  colorless,  and  the  healthy 
pleasure  that  should  be  taken  in  them  gives 
way  to  inaction  and  indifference,  always  a 
suspicious  state  in  adolescents.  Senile  in- 
firmities with  impotence  and  sterility  come 
over-early  in  exceptionally  grave   cases,  and 


SEXUAL  ENLIGHTENMENT  l8l 

any  child  generated  before  these  changes  occur 
is  prone  to  exhibit  the  consequences  of  parental 
sin  by  infantalism  or  prematurity.  Fortu- 
nately such  fathers  and  mothers  beget  few- 
children,  and  the  latter  are  rarely  able  to  ac- 
complish maternal  feeding  to  prolong  the  life 
of  a  degenerate  offspring. 

Epilepsy  and  insanity,  formerly  attributed 
to  the  habit,  do  not  result  from  it  unless  there 
be  an  inherited  predisposition,  and  even  so,  the 
causal  factor  is  probably  the  morbid  unrest  and 
terror  produced  by  misleading  information, 
rather  than  to  the  practice  itself,  however 
unbridled. 

Some  consideration  has  been  given  already 
to  the  fact  that  irregularities  in  the  form,  size 
and  functions  of  the  sexual  organs,  the  occur- 
rence of  transient  varicocele  and  the  scrotal 
waves  may  cause  boys  to  imagine  that  they 
are  abnormal  and,  in  consequence,  to  become 
very  apprehensive.  This  tendency  is  greatest 
in  auto-erotists,  since  they  are  already  depressed 
in  mind  and  very  sensitive  and  have  their  at- 
tention more  than  ordinarily  concentrated  upon 
these  parts.  Any  change  or  variation  from  a 
supposed  standard  is  considered  either  a  de- 


l82  THE   ADOLESCENT  PERIOD 

formity  or,  in  their  distressed  consciences,  a 
direct  result  of  indulgence,  and  they  grow  hypo- 
chondriacal and  regard  their  condition  as 
hopeless.  Yet  more  alarming  are  the  spon- 
taneous seminal  emissions;  these  are  made 
more  frequent  by  the  habit  and  suggest  loss 
of  virility.  As  to  the  practice  itself  they  feel 
that  voluntary  abandonment  is  always  possible, 
but  the  nocturnal  losses  are  beyond  control, 
and  between  dread  of  a  recurrence  and  despair 
when  it  happens  the  nervous  system  is  greatly 
disturbed  and  life  may  be  so  embittered  that 
release  is  sought  in  suicide. 

This  state  perhaps  more  than  any  other  in 
adolescence  demands  tactful  management,  and 
a  guardian  must  forestall  the  trouble  as  well 
as  give  counsel  when  questioned.  Most  boys 
are  so  modest  about  these  matters  and  so 
ashamed  of  the  habit  that  they  hide  their  fears 
and  symptoms  from  those  able  to  give  good 
advice  and  consult  equally  ignorant  com- 
panions of  their  own  age  or  read  the  purposely 
alarming  literature  on  the  subject  that  is  too 
often  put  in  their  way.  They  crave  special 
instruction  to  remedy  their  ills  and  to  remove 
anxiety  as  quickly  as  possible,  and  they  are 


SEXUAL   ENLIGHTENMENT  1 83 

very  tractable  here,  though  they  may  be  quite 
the  reverse  generally.  They  need  education 
in  sex  details,  in  the  laws  of  reproduction  and 
the  proper  course  to  follow  to  insure  sexual 
health. 

They  should  be  told  that  spontaneous  expul- 
sions of  seminal  fluid,  while  not  uniform  as 
to  frequency,  are  absolutely  normal;  that 
if  absent  there  would  be  real  cause  for  con- 
cern and  that  anxiety  about  and  close  attention 
to  the  special  organs  make  them  more  fre- 
quent. In  addition,  an  expert's  examination 
helps  greatly  by  proving  tne  non-existence  of 
imagined  abnormalities.  The  thoughts  should 
be  diverted  from  self  to  active  outside  inter- 
ests, and  the  will  braced  to  resist  the  beset- 
ting temptation  by  explaining  the  importance 
of  chastity  to  health  and  happiness.  In  all 
talks  with  boys  it  is  well  to  remember  that, 
ordinarily,  they  are  much  less  influenced  by 
the  moral  aspect  of  this  question  than  by  ap- 
peals to  manly  pride  with  descriptions  of  the 
indecency  and  degrading  selfishness  of  the 
habit. 

Further,  the  educator  must  use  nice  dis- 
crimination to  strike  the  safe  mean  between 


1 84  THE   ADOLESCENT   PERIOD 

minimizing  and  exaggerating  the  dangers  of 
auto-erotism  and  constantly  keep  in  mind 
that,  as  already  indicated,  it  is  not  so  much 
the  habit  as  the  auto-suggestive  fears  of  its 
effects  that  underlie  any  consequent  disturb- 
ance. When,  as  often  happens,  each  indul- 
gence is  attended  by  a  marked  sense  of  having 
sinned,  or  intense  remorse  for  self-inflicted  per- 
manent injury,  strict  moralizing  and  the  de- 
tailing of  possible  sequels,  even  without  over- 
statement, have  very  disastrous  psychic  effects. 
The  right  way  is  to  draw  the  mind  out  of  its 
morbid  condition  by  diversion  and  avoid  any 
subject  that  will  further  depress. 

It  is  in  just  these  cases  that  the  widely  dis- 
tributed pamphlets  exploiting  patent  medicines 
do  so  much  harm.  These  distort  natural  con- 
ditions and  unimportant  variations  into  fea- 
tures of  disease,  loss  of  power  or  vital  decay. 
In  them  the  timorous  find  all  their  own  symp- 
toms and  many  others  never  thought  of,  but 
are  promised  a  rapid  cure  from  some  pre- 
scription or  from  the  use  of  some  expensive 
apparatus.  Sometimes  the  treatment  is  harm- 
less and,  occasionally,  it  may  do  good  by 
suggestion,  though  usually,  if  not  actually  in- 


SEXUAL  ENLIGHTENMENT  185 

jurious,  it  has  no  beneficial  action  whatever 
and  the  deluded  victim  grows  more  and  more 
discouraged  and  may  have  a  serious  nervous 
breakdown  unless  rescued  by  a  wise  and 
timely  adviser. 

The  regular  medical  treatment,  except  in  the 
use  of  tonics  to  maintain  strength  and  the 
bromides  to  relieve  irritability,  is  unsatisfac- 
tory. Surgically,  circumcision  is  advisable  in 
selected  cases.  The  operation  being  followed 
by  induration  of  the  exposed  part  greatly  re- 
duces local  excitability.  It  also  facilitates 
cleanliness;  diminishes  the  liability  to  reflex 
disturbances,  and  consequently  steadies  the 
sexual  function  and  lessens  the  inclination  to 
any  form  of  excess. 

Much  more  can  be  accomplished  by  hygienic 
measures  which,  it  may  be  stated,  are  quite 
similar  to  those  called  for  as  aids  in  general 
sexual  education,  irrespective  of  the  habit  of 
auto-erotism,  and  to  a  great  extent  are  con- 
cerned with  the  removal  of  the  exciting  causes 
of  the  act. 

Living  and  sleeping  rooms  should  be  well 
ventilated  and  never  over-heated.  Each  child 
should  have  his  or  her  own  bed  and,  if  possible, 


1 86  THE   ADOLESCENT  PERIOD 

a  separate  bed-room  not  far  removed  from 
the  watchful  eyes  of  the  mother  or  other  really 
responsible  person.  The  mattress  should  be 
firm  and  the  bed  coverings  as  light  as  consistent 
with  warmth,  and  while  deep  and  long  sleep  is 
desirable,  prompt  rising  at  a  reasonable  time 
in  the  morning  is  to  be  insisted  upon.  If 
wakefulness  comes  before  the  appointed  time 
the  warm  bed  must  be  abandoned  at  once.  At 
this  hour,  also,  the  caretaker  must  be  particu- 
larly attentive  to  the  child's  hand  and  body 
movements.  Some  children  like  to  have  a  few 
favorite  toys  placed  by  their  bed-sides  at  night, 
and  it  is  well  to  grant  this  desire,  as  it  is  much 
better  for  them  to  have  these  to  play  with,  when 
their  sleep  is  done  and  if  they  cannot  be  bathed 
and  dressed  at  once,  than  to  lie  awake  with 
nothing  to  do.  Confinement  to  bed  as  a 
punishment  and  the  general  boarding-school 
rule  requiring  each  pupil  to  rise  in  the  morning 
at  a  fixed  hour  when  a  bell  rings  are  very 
dangerous.  For  the  latter  the  time  usually 
set  is  about  seven  o'clock,  and  those  who  may 
be  thoroughly  awake  before  readily  fall  into 
bad  practices. 
The  general  clothing  must  only  be  thick 


SEXUAL   ENLIGHTENMENT  1 87 

enough  to  protect,  without  keeping  the  body- 
too  hot.  Knickerbockers  and  trousers  must 
fit  loosely  about  the  lower  part  of  the  trunk  and 
be  held  up  by  a  belt  rather  than  drawn  up 
tight  in  the  crotch  by  braces;  the  drawers  in 
girls  as  well  as  boys  should  have  the  same 
easy  fit.  Trousers  pockets,  if  allowed  at  all, 
must  be  placed  well  to  the  sides  and  stitched 
backward. 

Daily  bathing  in  cool  water  is  advisable. 
The  bath  should  be  conducted  in  private  and 
be  short,  though  always  including  proper  at- 
tention to  the  cleansing  of  the  special  organs. 
Swimming,  with  its  added  exercise  and  amuse- 
ment is  especially  useful,  and  the  application 
of  cold  water  to  the  surface  by  hip  baths  and 
local  spongings  with  no  after-drying  is  of 
material  aid  in  the  relief  of  some  of  the  sequels 
of  the  habit. 

The  diet  should  be  plain.  Of  the  three  meals 
the  last  must  be  the  lightest  and  any  desire  to 
eat  between  times  ought  to  be  discouraged. 
Though  meat,  asparagus  and  celery  need  not 
be  forbidden,  as  they  are  not  excitants  of  the 
sexual  impulse  as  popularly  supposed,  a  ban 
is  to  be  placed  on  tea,  coffee,  alcoholic  liquids, 


1 88  THE   ADOLESCENT   PERIOD 

cigarettes,  highly  seasoned  dishes  and  too  free 
indulgence  in  sweets. 

Exhausting  physical  and  mental  work  is  to 
be  avoided,  though  exercise  up  to  the  point 
of  healthy  fatigue  is  a  safeguard  and  the  same 
may  be  said  of  any  interesting  occupation  that 
encourages  companionship  and  employs  the 
mind  in  idle  moments  to  the  exclusion  of 
solitary  and  purposeless  dreaming.  The  best 
exercises  for  the  body  are  out-of-door  games 
and  sports  that  involve  a  spirit  of  contest  and 
the  discipline  of  "  team  "  play.  The  best  occu- 
pations for  the  mind,  those  that  not  only  give 
employment  but  educate  the  senses,  involve 
some  earnestness  of  effort,  and  are  directed  to 
the  accomplishment  of  a  satisfactory  end.  For 
horse-back  and  bicycle  riding  a  saddle  with  a 
flat  peak  should  be  provided;  in  the  gymnasium 
pole  and  rope  climbing — where  the  hands  and 
legs  are  used  conjointly — had  better  be  dis- 
pensed with  and  there  are  objections  to  the 
rocking-horse  and  rocking-chair  in  the  nursery. 

All  local  causes  of  irritation,  as  skin  erup- 
tions, accumulation  of  secretions,  or  a  long  fore- 
skin with  a  contracted  opening  require  atten- 
tion, and  care  must  be  taken  to  clear  the  rectum 


SEXUAL  ENLIGHTENMENT  1 89 

of  seat- worms  and  to  be  sure  that  it  does  not 
become  impacted  with  masses  of  hardened 
feces. 

Before  leaving  this  subject  there  is  one 
method  of  breaking  the  habit  which  merits 
mention.  It  is  chiefly  applicable  to  the  very 
young  or  to  those  who  accomplish  the  act  dur- 
ing sleep,  and  consists  in  careful  watching  of 
the  child  throughout  the  night  by  a  trained 
nurse  who  must  take  the  hands  from  beneath 
the  bed  coverings  whenever  they  are  ap- 
proached to  the  parts  and  check  any  sus- 
picious movements  of  the  legs  or  body.  This 
observation  is  usually  necessary  for  several 
weeks  and  must  not  be  relaxed  until  some  time 
after  all  suspicious  actions  have  ceased.  It 
has  proved  very  successful  in  my  own  ex- 
perience.1 

There  are  a  few  more  educational  points  to 
be  considered  in  connection  with  the  avoidance 
or  the  lessening  of  certain  dangerous  influences 
that  arise  during  the  development  of  sexual 
life.     Some  of  these  are  inherent  and  hereditary 

1~Dr.  Albert  Moll,  "The  Sexual  Life  of  the  Child,"  1913, 
states  that  this  plan  "appears  to  be  almost  entirely  unknown," 
but  it  has  been  employed  quite  generally  in  this  country  for  a 
number  of  years. 


190  THE   ADOLESCENT  PERIOD 

and  will  remain  beyond  control  until  eugenics 
is  established  as  a  practical  science.  Others 
depend  upon  environment  and  may  be  modi- 
fied, though  they  are  far  from  being  quite 
under  restraint.  The  sexual  impulse,  for  in- 
stance, is  excited  by  many  and  constantly  oper- 
ating conditions,  such  as  association  of  the  two 
sexes,  or  even  of  many  of  the  same  sex  together; 
direct  example;  improper  books  and  pictures — 
not  to  mention  the  daily  newspaper — and  the 
sight  of  sexual  acts  between  animals.  Such 
excitants  cannot  be  entirely  precluded,  but 
they  can  be  modified  in  force  and  frequency 
by  insisting  upon  modesty  and  good  example 
in  the  home;  good  companions;  the  occupation 
of  separate  bed-rooms  and  other  reasonable 
safeguards. 

Shame  and  disgust  are  important  sentiments 
to  cultivate  as  assistants  in  sexual  education. 
These  feelings  arise  from  the  breaking  of  a  cus- 
tom or  a  breach  of  morality  and  are  closely 
related  to  one  another.  Thus  an  action  may 
be  disgusting  to  an  observer  and  a  source  of 
shame  to  the  actor  should  he  be  conscious  of 
observation.  In  cultivating  these  sentiments 
the  educator  must  beware  of  giving  custom  and 


SEXUAL   ENLIGHTENMENT  191 

morality  a  mistaken  application,  lest  shame  and 
disgust  become  exaggerated  and  either  inhibit 
improperly  or  lose  their  restraining  value.  A 
child  should  be  taught  that  to  expose  the  genital 
organs  is  both  uncustomary  and  immoral,  yet 
at  this  same  time,  let  it  be  taken  for  granted 
that  there  is  nothing  wrong  in  nakedness  it- 
self, and  that  sexuality  under  certain  condi- 
tions, as  in  the  marital  act  that  gives  origin 
to  a  new  life,  is  customary  and  moral  while 
illegitimate  intercourse,  auto-erotism  and  de- 
praved practices  and  thoughts  are  grossly 
unclean  and  proper  objects  of  shame  and 
disgust. 

The  more  marked  the  sexual  impulse  the 
greater  the  care  indicated  to  divert  attention 
from  it  by  encouraging  participation  in  athletic 
sports;  employing  the  mind  with  entertain- 
ing reading  and  refined  theatrical  plays.  At 
the  same  time  developing  the  will  power 
to  increase  restraint  and  resistance  to  temp- 
tation. Here,  also,  help  can  be  expected  from 
religious  instruction,  though  it  must  be  in  true 
and  heartfelt  piety,  not  in  empty  formalities 
and  dogmas. 

In  conclusion,  too  much  must  not  be  expected 


192  THE   ADOLESCENT  PERIOD 

of  sexual  enlightenment.  It  has  its  most 
noticeable  effects  in  the  prevention  of  disease, 
but  it  cannot  rapidly  secure  purity  for  the 
young  and  check  the  prevalence  of  bad  habits. 
If,  however,  only  a  few  children  be  saved 
a  good  beginning  will  have  been  made  and 
steadily  progressive  results  can  be  reasonably 
looked  or  with  the  education  of  successive 
generations. 


INDEX 


Abnormal  psychic  conditions,  prevention  of,  102 
Abnormalities  of  speech,  81 
Accessory  muscles,  9 

and  mental  states,  10 
age  for  developing,  1 1 
bearing  of  athletics  on,  46 
dangers  of  over-strain  of,  1 1 
proper  development  of,  1 1 
Adenoids,  effects  of  on  physical  condition,  43 
Adolescence,  disorders  of,  67 

mortality  during,  74 
Adolescents,  criminal  tendencies  of,  113 
faults  of,  113 

mental  and  moral  training  of,  106 
Age  for  developing  accessory  muscles,  1 1 
of  beginning  menstruation,  143 
of  completion  of  growth,  2 
of  girls,  relation  to  health,  73 
of  greatest  increase  in  chest  growth,  38 
of  greatest  liability  to  epilepsy,  85 

to  hysteria,  88 
of  most  rapid  gain  in  vital  capacity,  37 

growth,  1 
of  moral  responsibility,  116 
of  puberty,  meaning  of,  161 
in  boys,  161 
in  girls,  161 
of  school  boys,  relation  to  health,  72 
of  tendency  to  truancy,  117 
193 


194  INDEX 

Age  of  tissues  and  organs,  5 

relation  to  conduct,  113 
to  mortality,  74 
of  nature  of  offences,  114 
of  spinal  curvature,  80 

to  begin  sexual  enlightenment,  156 
Albuminuria,  transient,  40 
Alcohol,  effects  of,  129 
Anger,  122 

causes  of,  122 

management  of,  124 
Anomalies  of  sleep,  83 
Anxiety,  neurosis,  97 
Appetite,  absent  or  perverted,  75 
Athletic  director,  qualifications  of,  33 

sports,  dangers  if  uncontrolled,  29 

team  association,  29 

requirements  for  best  results,  29 

training  in  boys,  32 
Athletics,  academic,  need  of  guidance,  32 
danger  age  of,  33 

contest  of  school  and  college  management,  33 

estimation  of  results  of,  44 

general  good  results  of,  45 

in  girls,  close  oversight  of,  65 

period  of  most  efficiency,  45 

preliminary  training  of  effeminate  boys  for,  43 

psychic  results  of,  45 

relation  to  accessory  muscles,  46 

segregation  of  boys  by  age  in,  44 

special  physical  results  of,  45 
Auto-erotism,  170 

and  sexual  education,  176 

habit  of,  172 

habitual,  bathing  in,  187 
bed  rules  for,  186 
clothing  in,  186 


INDEX  195 


Auto-erotism,  habitual,  detection  of,  175 

diet  in,  187 

existing  causes  of,  174 

exercise  in,  188 

health  deterioration  from,  180 

hygiene  of,  185 

in  infants,  method  of  overcoming,  if 

living  and  sleeping  rooms  in,  185 

medical  treatment  of,  185 

mental  effects  of,  177 

most  dangerous  factor  of,  1 79 

physical  effects  of,  177 

predisposing  causes  of,  173 

relations  to  health,  178 

removal  of  local  irritation  in,  188 

symptoms  produced  by,  179 
methods  of  inauguration,  171 
phobias  of,  181 
prevalence  of,  170 
Automatisms,  12 

conditions  favoring,  12 
control  of,  14 
developmental  need  of,  13 
normality  of,  13 
what  indicated  by,  13 


B 


Ball  games,  advantages  of  as  exercises,  49 

Baseball,  48 

Bathing  for  schoolboys,  58 

in  habitual  auto-erotism,  187 
Body,  carriage,  affects  of,  36 
Bones,  development  of,  35 
Borrowing  habit,  the,  in  boys,  138 
Boxing,  27 
Boys,  age  of  puberty  in,  161 


196  INDEX 

Boys,  anxiety  in,  from  involuntary  orgasms,  181 
athletic  training  in,  32 
best  games  for,  48 

sports  for,  52 
essential  condition  for  true  puberty  in,  162 
features  of  establishment  of  puberty  in,  162 
improvidence  in,  135 
involuntary  sexual  orgasms  in,  164 
money  allowance  of,  137 
need  of  learning  money  value,  135 
pampered,  preparation  of  for  athletics,  43 
phobias  of  the  genitalia  in,  181 
play  in,  25 

period  of  the  best  results  of  athletics  in,  45 
prevalence  of  auto-erotism  in,  170 
recognition  of  property  rights  by,  139 
secondary  sex  qualities  in,  168 
segregation  by  ages  in  athletics,  44 
the  borrowing  habit  in,  138 

Brain,  growth  of,  39 


Cardiac  disturbances,  76 

rhythm,  alterations  in,  78 
Castration,  effects  of,  168 
Cereals  in  the  training  diet  of  boys,  55 
Chest,  age  of  greatest  enlargement,  38 

growth  of,  37 
Child-labor  and  motor  efficiency,  15 
Children,  capacity  for  reformation  in,  116 

neurotic,  management  of,  103 

propriety  of  sexual  education  in,  151 

want  of  self-control  in,  115 
"Children's  hour,"  the,  134 
Chlorosis,  83 
Clothing,  in  habitual  auto-erotism,  186 


INDEX  197 


Coasting,  52 

Cocoa  and  chocolate,  use  of  in  schoolboys,  56 

Conduct,  relation  of  age  to,  113 

relation  to  weather,  117 
Conformed  invalidism,  98 
Contest  interest  of  sports,  48 
Crime,  juvenile,  causes  of,  113 

organization  for,  126 

relation  of  age  to,  113 
Criminal  tendencies  of  adolescents,  113 

D 

Dancing,  26 

Dementia  prascox,  1 1 1 

Depression,  99 

Development  of  accessory  muscles,  1 1 

of  fundamental  muscles,  1 1 
Developmental  changes  during  school  years,  41 
Diet  in  athletic  training  of  boys,  53 

in  habitual  auto-erotism,  187 
Digestion,  disturbances  of,  74 
Disorders,  chronic,  of  girls,  73 
of  schoolboys,  72 

due  to  unequal  development,  69 

mental,  84 

nature  of,  during  pubescence,  67 

nervous,  84 

of  adolescence,  67 
Disturbed  mentality,  108 

features  of,  108 
Dormitories  for  schoolboys,  57 
Dreams,  84 
Drink  habit,  formation  in  adolescents,  129 

E 

Education,  physical,  32 

sexual,  reasons  for,  152 


198  INDEX 

Education,  sexual,  time  for,  154 
Educational  incapacity,  98 
Envy,  124 
Epilepsy,  85 

age  of  greatest  liability  to,  85 

causes  of,  85 

effect  of,  on  mentality,  87 

outlook  for  case  of,  88 

variable  gravity  of,  86 
Epileptic  fit,  causes  of,  85 

features  of,  86 
Exercise,  advantages  of  swimming  as  an,  30 

effects  on  respiration,  38 

in  habitual  auto-erotism,  188 

relation  to  growth  periods,  39 

systematic,  good  effects  of,  23 

why  play  best,  23 
Exercises  for  bodily  defects,  44 

for  conditioning  purposes,  44 

Swedish,  20 


Faults,  methods  of  correcting,  139 

of  adolescents,  113 
Fencing,  28 

Financial  training,  plan  for  in  boarding  schools,  136 
Food  in  athletic  training  of  boys,  53 
Football,  48 

method  of  eliminating  dangers  of,  49 
Fundamental  muscles,  9 

proper  development  of,  1 1 


Games,  23 

best  for  boys,  48 


/ 


INDEX  199 


Games  for  girls,  64 

Genitalia,  anxiety  in  boys  from  normal  variations  in,  181 

Girls  and  boys,  dissimilarity  of  athletic  management  of,  60 

points  of  physical  contrast,  61 

similarity  of  general  physical  management  of,  60 
advantage  of  playing  games  to,  65 
age  of  puberty  in,  161 
American,  age  of  menstruating,  143 
athletics,  need  of  close  oversight  of,  65 
best  games  for,  64 

sports  for,  64 
chronic  disorders  of,  73 
difficulties  of,  in  learning  games,  65 
essential  condition  of  true  puberty  in,  162 
features  of  establishment  of  puberty  in,  162 
gymnasium  for,  63 
health,  management  of,  73 
involuntary  sexual  orgasms  in,  166 
importance  of  physical  director  for,  65 

of  strength  of  body  in,  59 
liability  of,  to  mental  disorders,  112 

to  neurasthenia,  100 
management  of,  in  menstrual  intervals,  148 
menstruation  in,  61 
menstrual  interruptions  of  exercise,  62 
modification  of  sports  for,  61 
muscle  culture  in,  59 
need  of  guidance  at  monthly  periods,  147 

of  occupation  for,  60 

of  rest  during  pubescence,  62 
nervous,  effects  of  menstruation  in,  145 
palpitation  in,  77 
physical  education  of,  relation  to  menstruation,  61 

management  of,  62 
play  in,  26 

preparation  of,  for  first  menstruation,  140 
prevalence  of  auto-erotism  in,  171 


200  INDEX 

Girls  and  boys,  pubescent,  exercise  in,  62 

precautions  against  prostitution  in,  130 
relation  of  age  to  health,  73 

of  growth  to  health,  73 
secondary  sex  qualities  in,  167 
tendency  to  mental  unbalance  in,  108 
uninstructed,  shock  of  first  menstruation  on,  144 
walking  as  exercise  for,  64 
"Going  state,"  indications  of,  48 
Golf,  50,  64 

Good  cooking,  necessity  of,  53 
Growth,  1 

acceleration  at  puberty,  1 
age  of  completion,  2 

of  greatest  rapidity,  1 
conditions  for  increase,  4 
evidences  of  normal,  2 
effects  of  school-work  on,  4 
in  height,  1 
in  weight,  1 

irregularity  of,  in  organs,  5 
of  bones,  35 
of  brain,  39 
of  chest,  37 

of  girls,  relation  to  health,  73 
of  heart,  36 
of  kidneys,  40 
of  lungs,  37 
of  motor  power,  38 
of  muscle  power,  8,  38 
of  muscles,  7 
of  parts  and  organs,  5 
of  school  boys,  relation  to  health,  73 
relation  to  mortality,  74 
retarding  conditions,  4 
Growth-force  at  adult  age,  5 
Gymnasium  for  boys,  46 


INDEX  20I 

Gymnasium  for  girls,  63 

Gymnastics,  as  substitute  for  out-door  sports,  46 

defects  of,  22 

for  boys,  46 

for  girls,  63 

for  physical  defects,  47 

for  symmetry  and  proportion,  22 

individual  adaptation  of,  47 

John's  method,  19 

Long's  method,  21 

objects  of,  19 

to  develop  motor  possibilities,  19 

to  economize  force,  21 

to  increase  will  control,  20 

H 

Health,  general,  during  pubescence,  67 
influence  of  season  on,  71 
of  girls,  relation  to  age,  73 

to  growth,  73 
of  school  boys,  relation  of  growth  to,  73 

to  age,  72 
relations  to  habitual  auto-erotism,  178 
Heart,  disturbances  of,  76 

enlargement  at  puberty,  36 
growth  of,  36 
hypertrophy  of,  77 
phobias,  78 

strain  from  race  rowing,  51 
from  race  running,  50 
Height  and  weight,  proportion  of  increase,  2 
table  of  standard  proportion,  3 
time  relation  of  increase,  2 
Height,  growth  in,  1 

relation  to  pulse  rate,  37 
Hockey,  52 


202  INDEX 

Hygiene  of  habitual  auto-erotism,  185 
Hysteria,  88 

age  of  occurrence,  88 

causes  of,  89 

curative  measures  in,  93 

general  features  of,  92 

joint  symptoms  of,  90 

motor  features  of,  91 

preventive  measures  in,  92 

psychic  features  of,  90 

sensory  features  of,  90 
Hystero-epilepsy,  92 


Improvidence,  135 

parent's  responsibility  for,  135 
school's  responsibility  for,  136 
Incendiarism,  128 
Industrial  education,  16 
age  for,  18 
best,  17 

essentials  of,  17 
worst,  17 
Infants,  cure  of  habitual  auto-erotism  in,  189 

neurotic,  management  of,  103 
Insanity,  causes  of,  112 
Instinct  of  organization,  direction  of,  126 
Intemperance,  129 

age  of  beginning,  129 
Involuntary  sexual  orgasms,  anxiety  about,  in  boys,  182 
in  boys,  164 
in  girls,  164 

J 

Jealousy,  124 

Joint  symptoms  of  hysteria,  90 


INDEX  203 


Juvenile  offenders,  punishment  of,  116 
reformation  of,  116 
paresis,  112 

K 

Kidneys,  growth  of,  40 


Liars,  habitual,  121 
Lie,  the  chivalrous,  120 
Lies,  selfish,  120 

varying  gravity  of,  119 
Lungs,  growth  of,  37 
Lying,  118 


M 


Manual  training,  17 

essentials  for  usefulness,  18 
faults  of,  18 

objects  and  results  of,  18 
Marching,  26 
Masturbation,  170 
Meals  for  schoolboys,  56 
Melancholia,  99 

Menstrual  flow,  absolute  rest  during,  63 
establishment  of,  143 
initial,  onset  of,  143 
proper  way  of  regarding,  147 
interruptive  of  exercise,  63 
intervals,  management  of,  148 
periods,  management  of,  147 
need  of  rest  during,  147 
Menstruation,  61,  140 

age  of  in  United  States,  143 


204  INDEX 

Menstruation  as  mark  of  puberty,  165 
attendant  symptoms  of,  141 
effects  of  in  nervous  girls,  145 
false  popular  idea  of,  142 
first,  changes  in  disposition  after,  144 
effects  in  nervous  system,  144 
shock  of,  to  uninstructed  girls,  144 
general  conditions  following,  141 
mental  preparation  for,  63 
normal,  necessity  of,  149 

periodicity  of,  140 
organs  involved  in,  140,  146 
precedent  symptoms  of,  141 
relation  to  physical  and  mental  education,  61 
Mental  bias,  special  forms  of,  109 
disorders  during  pubescence,  68 
disturbances,  84 

processes,  normal  at  puberty,  95 
unbalance,  management  of,  1 1 1 
Mentality,  disburbed,  108 

effects  of  epilepsy  in,  87 
Military  training,  28 
Milk,  food  value  of,  56 
Moral  responsibility,  age  of,  116 
Morning  rising  of  schoolboys,  57 
Mortality  of  the  young,  74 
relation  to  age,  74 
to  growth,  74 
Motor  efficiency  and  child-labor,  15 

indications  of  imperfect,  15 
Motor  power,  development  of,  38 

symptoms  of  hysteria,  91 
Muscle  culture,  benefits  of,  32 
in  girls,  59 
reasons  for,  16 
efficiency,  effects  of  modern  conditions  on,  14 
elements  of,  14 


INDEX  20: 


Muscle  power,  age  of  most  rapid  growth,  8 

course  of  growth,  8 
Muscles,  accessory,  9 

age,  of  differentiation  in  sexes,  7 

as  instruments  of  expression,  7 

development  at  puberty,  7 

fundamental,  9 

growth  of,  7,  38 

importance  of,  6 

rhythmic  movements  of,  26 

special  growth  features  of,  8 

unsymmetrical  growth  of,  7 

N 
Neurasthenia,  100 

causes  of,  100 

features  of,  100 

management  of,  107 
Neuroses,  93 

anxiety,  97 

dependence  on  sex  development,  93 

psycho-analytic  treatment  of,  94 
Nervous  disturbances,  84 

O 

Occular  disorders,  82 
Organization  for  law-breaking,  126 
Organs,  course  of  growth  of,  5 
Over  conscientiousness,  95 
"Over- training,"  indications  of,  48 
Out-door  sports,  advantages  of,  32,  48 
Ovulation  as  mark  of  puberty,  165 

P 

Palpitation  in  girls,  77 

Parents,  danger  of  sexual  obsessions  in,  156 

Petit  mal,  features  of,  87 


206  INDEX 

Petty  pilfering,  127 
Phobias,  102 

of  body,  102 

of  ideas,  102 

of  objects,  102 

of  sex  organs,  extent  of  instruction  in,  182 
instructional  method  of  relief,  183 
need  of  enlightenment  in,  183 

of  situations,  102 

of  the  urine,  40 
Physical  condition  and  adenoids,  43 
and  large  tonsils,  43 

director  for  girls,  qualifications  of,  65 

education,  32 

relation  to  menstruation,  61 

examination  of  schoolboys,  41 
Physician's,  the,  relation  to  athletics,  34 

to  sexual  enlightenment,  158 
Play,  23 

and  racial  traits,  24 

in  boys,  25 

in  girls,  26 

interest,  31,  48 
of  sports,  48 

relation  to  body  and  mind,  23 
to  study  and  work,  31 

variations  with  age  and  sex,  25 

why  best  exercise,  23 
Prostitution,  130 
Psychasthenia,  100 
Psychasthenic  state,  feature  of,  101 
Psychic  features  of  hysteria,  90 
Psycho-analytic  treatment  of  neurosis,  94 
Psycho-sexual  marks  of  beginning  sexual  life,  102 
Pubertal  development,  early  indications  of,  155 
Puberty,  acceleration  of  growth  at,  1 

and  blood-vessel  area,  36 


INDEX  207 

Puberty  and  pulse  rate,  37 

changes  in  female  sex  organs  at,  165 
in  male  sex  organs  at,  162 

demands  on  heart  at,  36 

effect  of  school  work  on,  4 

effects  on  circulation,  36 

features  of  establishment  in  boys,  162 
in  girls,  162 

growth  of  muscle  power  at,  8 

tendency  to  truancy,  at,  117 

true,  essential  condition  of,  in  boys,  162 
in  girls,  162 
Pubescence,  general  health  during,  67 

in  girls,  exercise  during,  62 
rest  during,  62 

mental  disorders  during,  68 

nature  of  disorders  during,  67 
Pubescent  years,  management  in  the  nervous,  106 
Pugnacity,  normal,  27 
Pulse  rate,  relation  to  height  growth,  37 

R 

Race  and  game  running,  distinction  between,  50 
Racial  traits  and  play,  24 
Respiration  and  exercise,  38 
Respiratory  movements,  number  of,  38 
Rowing,  51 

and  heart  strain,  51 

race,  length  of,  for  schoolboys,  51 
Running  and  heart  strain,  50 

races,  50 

criticism  of,  50 

short  distance  in  ball  games,  49 


School  boat-racing,  length  of  course,  51 
boys,  bathing  of,  58 


208  INDEX 

School  boys,  best  sports  for,  48 
cereals  in  diet  of,  55 
chronic  disorders  of,  72 
cocoa  and  chocolate  in,  56 
diet  in  athletic  training  of,  53 
dormitories  for,  57 
meal  hours  for,  56 
milk  as  food  for,  56 
need  of  good  cooking  for,  53 
varied  food  for,  53 
prompt  morning  rising  in,  57 
poor  sleep  in,  57 
physical  examination  of,  41 
race  running  in,  50 
relation  of  age  to  illness,  72 

of  growth  to  health,  73 
rowing  in,  51 
sleep  hours  for,  57 
sleep  in,  57 
sports  best  for,  48 

relation  of  physical  health  to  participation  in,  42 
study  hours  for,  58 
swimming  for,  52 
track  and  field  sports  for,  50 
tea  and  coffee  in,  55 
training  of,  52 
vegetables  in  diet  of,  54 
winter  sports  of,  52 
masters'  disadvantages  in  sex  education,  158 
-work,  effects  on  growth,  4 
Schools,  boarding,  plan  for  financial  training  in,  136 
School's  responsibility  for  ailments  of  youth,  70 
Season,  influence  of,  on  health,  71 
Secondary  sex  qualities,  166 
in  boys,  168 
in  girls,  167 
origin  of,  166 


INDEX  209 

Self -abuse,  170 

Self-control,  lack  of,  in  children,  115 

necessity  of,  115 
Self -observation,  undue,  96 
Sensory  features  of  hysteria,  90 
Sex  organs,  female,  pubertic  changes  in,  165 
male,  pubertic  changes  in,  162 
peripheral,  variations  in,  161 
purpose  of,  161 
Sexual  act,  purpose  of  impulse  to,  170 
education,  value  of  religion  in,  191 

value  of  shame  and  disgust  in,  191 
educator,  knowledge  required  by,  159 

need  of  child's  confidence  in,  159 
enlightenment,  150 
age  for  beginning,  156 
best  opportunities  for,  159 
facts  to  be  explained,  161 
home  part  in,  159 
language  used  in,  160 
parents'  part  in,  159 
physicians'  part  in,  158 
reasons  for,  152 
relation  to  auto-erotism,  176 
school  masters'  part  in,  158 
source  of,  157 
time  for,  154 
impulse,  excitants  of,  190 

lessening  excitants  of,  190 
life,  age  of  beginning,  162 
dangerous  influences  in,  189 
objective  side,  151 

psycho-sexual  marks  of  dawn  of,  162 
subjective  side,  151 
orgasms,  involuntary,  in  boys,  164 
in  girls,  166 
Shame  and  disgust,  value  of  in  sexual  education,  191 


210  INDEX 

Skating,  52 

Sleep,  anomalies  of,  83 

as  a  health  preserver,  70 

hours  for  schoolboys,  57 

poor,  in  schoolboys,  57 

proper  amount  of,  71 
Sleeplessness,  71 
Sleep-walking,  84 
Speech,  anomalies  of,  81 
Spermatozoids,  relation  to  nubility,  164 
Spinal  curvature,  35,  79 
causative  of,  80 
features  of,  81 
mechanical  support  in,  81 
relation  to  age,  80 
Sports,  23 

best  for  boys,  48 
for  girls,  64 

need  of  modification  for  girls,  61 

out-door,  advantages  of,  48 

track  and  field,  50 
Stammering,  82 

Strength  of  body,  importance  for  girls,  59 
Study  hours  for  schoolboys,  58 
Stuttering,  81 

Sugar,  presence  of  in  urine,  40 
Suicide,  131 

age  of  danger  of,  131 

motives  for,  131 

prevention  of,  134 

relation  to  sex,  131 
Swimming,  30,  52 

relation  to  rowing,  52 
Swedish  exercises,  20 


INDEX  211 


Tea  and  coffee  in  schoolboys,  55 

Teasing,  125 

Tennis,  48 

Theft,  127 

for  adventure  or  to  tease,  127 
habit,  difficulty  of  eradicating,  128 

Tonsils,  large,  effects  on  physical  condition,  43 

Track  and  field  sports,  50 

"Training"  in  schoolboys,  52 

Truancy,  117 

Truant,  the,  characteristics  of,  118 

Truthfulness,  establishment  of,  121 


U 


Urine,  albumin  in,  40 
phobias  of,  40 
sugar  in,  40 


V 


Vegetables  in  the  diet  of  schoolboys,  54 
Vital  capacity,  37 

age  of  greatest  increase,  37 
index,  38 

W 

Weather,  relations  to  conduct,  117 
Walking,  importance  of  proper,  65 
Weight,  increase  in,  1 
Wine,  management  of  using,  130 
Winter  sports  for  schoolboys,  52 
Wrestling,  28 


£7  42      5 


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